Why I Choose Honesty over Sales Tactics

4 months ago, I wasn’t a salesperson. 

But that’s life in a nutshell at a start-up. To plug any gaps, you do what you got to do, even if it means juggling multiple roles.

That’s how I found myself running sales demos every day despite having zero experience. And in the last 4 months, I’ve closed 30+ deals… and had to churn over a third.

It’s also taught me a valuable lesson.

TLDR: 

• The goal: Build sustainable client relationships
• The tactic: Shift from traditional sales tactics to a strategy of honesty and authenticity
• The result: Improve client trust, loyalty, and retention while reducing churn

Step 1: Abandon typical sales tactics

The dopamine hit you get when closing a deal is crazily addictive. The problem is it tempts you to twist facts and say anything that can close the deal and grow your ARR.

But overselling will ultimately lead to high customer expectations, future disappointment, and inevitable churn.

So while you enjoy short-term gains, you sacrifice long-term growth. After all, there’s no value to bringing in a customer who’s a poor fit and ultimately churns within a month.

Sustainable sales growth requires you to admit when you can’t help, even if it means saying no to potential deals.

Not getting more ARR is less of a blow to the company than churning new customers.

Step 2: Stop selling and start telling

At demos, I start off by asking about their past outreach results, their performance expectations, and their expected results.

Knowing those details, I walk the customer through their likely user journey in AiSDR.

I can even replicate their actual use case so they see how it will work with our AI.

This gives them a better understanding of how our product will solve their need.

There’s a lot of value to saying “Here’s what we have. Is it enough for your growth?” It adds weight to their decision, and should they proceed with your solution, it strengthens their loyalty in case they run into any issues they might experience.

Step 3: Explain where your solution may fall short

It’s also a good idea to ask about their previous attempts to solve their current challenge or address their need.

Since AiSDR is an AI sales assistant, I ask demo participants about their current outbound and inbound strategies and the results they’ve seen.

I then tell them where AiSDR can help them and where it may fall short. I might even give them a sneak peek if one of their software needs matches our feature prioritization (and if we’re presently working on it with a possible ETA).

For example, if they’re getting most demos from conferences and other meet-ups, I inform them that AiSDR might not be the right fit for their present audience. 

But if they’re still interested in trying out AiSDR, I elaborate on how our AI can help them experiment with outreach and potentially find a strategy that works.

This approach works because honesty shows vulnerability, and people prefer authenticity over perfection because it’s real, human, and the starting block for building relationships.

The Result

My old approach was good at closing deals, but like I mentioned, there’s no value if customers churn less than a month later.

While the number of deals I closed has dropped, the customers who move forward have more trust in us and AiSDR from the get-go.

My new approach has had some other good effects:

• Honesty shows that you care more about people than numbers (which they’ll appreciate in the long run).
• The data you get by being honest allows you to accurately understand whether or not your approach and product are working.
• If you’re honest about the ‘why’ of disqualifying a client, they’re more likely to refer you to someone who might be a fit.