You can say it, but do I believe it?
Who ever invented lying must have immediately realised he was onto a winner (and let’s be honest, it probably was a ‘he’).
There’s a video game I play where human players call out “Don’t shoot!” whenever they bump into each other across the barren wasteland. Of course, thanks to the invention of lying, there are tons of sods who shout and wave at you in a friendly matter, only to plant a sticky bomb on your ass and empty a magazine of rifle ammo into the soft back of your knees as soon as you skip off. You then get to watch as they pick through your corpse for gaming loot, often stull pumping away on the “Don’t shoot!” button.
Yeah, lying sucks.
We can’t even say that we live in a “once bitten, twice shy” culture, because so many people lie to us every day that I know I certainly tend to immediately assume everyone is lying before they’ve even taken a step towards me. The number of legitimate calls I've taken on my phone that have to go through my rigorous validation test is ridiculous. Even my mum has to answer some very testing questions about my childhood before I’ll tell her what her banking details are (she never did buy that electric heater, now I think about it). Ah well - better safe than sorry.
Anyway, I hear you ask, why are you still talking? THANK YOU - good point.
A LOT of agencies say the right things, but aren’t believable. Buyers believe behaviours NOT claims. Proof isn’t just decoration, it positions your company. Don’t just say you have a commercial impact - SHOW it. Narrative case studies are great, but hard, cold numbers and figures are better.
I can tell you I “really helped” my mum achieve her goal of buying a heater’, but it’s only when I show a 0% increase in the number of heaters in her front room you get some context as to what “really helped” looks like.
If everything you say is backed up by your behaviour, things you say that don’t have any tangible proof stand a solid chance of being taken at face value anyway. And that’s why you can REALLY start to lie.
JOKING!
If you have even the slightest interest in getting better at this stuff, I heartily suggest you take a look at Agency Growth School. The smart stuff nearly spoken about here is the tip of the iceberg. You also have to pay for AGS content, so there’s much much less padding. And that’s the truth.
Or is it?*
*it is.
(Or is it?)