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The Power of Not Having All the Answers (Honesty in Sales)

Posted byby Eliot Burdett  |  Published on: | Last updated: Feb 16, 2024

New research from the Boston University School of Management suggests that the best phrase a sales person can use to build trust and increase the likelihood of closing a sales is to respond with “I don’t know” when stumped by a question rather than making up an answer. Perhaps this has to do with the perception that sales people will say anything that they think gets the sales so therefore, any sales person who admits they can’t answer a question, must be telling the truth and be demonstrating honesty.

The phenomena is certainly true in interviewing. Often candidates sail through interviews with answers too good to be true until it comes to validating the answers with references and then the stories start to change. Few candidates know everything and it is a brave few that are prepared to admit this. These candidates are often the ones that end up being great team players and easier to manager…The ones you want.

See BNET Article The 3 Most Powerful Words in Sales

Image courtesy of Teerapun / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

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Eliot Burdett
Connect:

Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless. Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner. He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.