My ghast used to be frequently flabbered 😲 during meetings with clients when the sales team would exaggerate claims and employ much ‘creative license’ in describing what the system could do.
In my inexperience, I would sit tight and say nothing, hoping against hope 🤞🏻 that we’d find a magic wand to make all these claims come true.
This led to much stress and resentment during the project, and ultimately, much unhappiness all around.
Since then, I’ve learned to:
– insist on a briefing with the sales team before hand
– get them to show me their demo and proposal
– voice my thoughts
– agree a plan of action that is acceptable
I no longer tolerate situations where someone in my team might be sharing information that is knowingly inaccurate to mislead the client.
Indeed, I would now tactfully step forward and push forward the accurate and correct information/message.
The culprit will also get an unamused look from me. 😒
I take integrity extremely seriously and I know that once trust is broken, it is very difficult to build it up again*.
What do you do in this situation?
What if it’s a high-stakes client meeting?
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* Was talking to @Rikke Hovgaard about this who encouraged me to share what I learned (thank you 😘).
#integrityiseverything
#pigscannotfly
#zenhaoprotip