"Et tu Brute!" - from the play Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare - Actor, world famous dramatist and possibly a schoolmaster.

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest." - Ben Franklin - One of the founding fathers of the United States of America, statesman, diplomat and inventor.

"Don't get mad, get even." - Robert Kennedy - United States Senator, USA Attorney General and war veteran: naval seaman during World War II.
Summary: Over the course of your career, eventually someone will do something bad to you. You will have two options, one will be to get back at them, the other to do not react emotionally. There is a big difference in what you do in business and your personal life. How you conduct your personal life is your own business. You may choose to get even or do nothing. In sales and business, how you handle a negative situation like a customer lying to you can have a fundamental consequences to your career. Instead of dwelling on how to get back at someone in business, you must take a deep breath and behave as muturely as possible, no matter how badly you feel. Usually, the solution is treat the situation as objectively as possible and manage it knowing now that you can't trust this person or customer. If this customer is critical to your business, you must continue to service them without emotion, knowing that at least now you know how far you can extend your trust.
As we go through life, we need to interact with people. As we get older we get wiser (I am making an assumption ;-) ). One of the things we painfully learn about is that people will sometimes take advantage of a situation and deceive or betray you. This can be very difficult to handle and you may go through the phases of (1) shock (2) disbelief (3) anger (4) depression and finally (5) reconciliation with your feelings. Sometimes we can't get by (3) and you never get over it, which is a bad situation for you. If you can't get over a betrayal you will be doomed to stay in a very bitter state which can consume you to the point where you have problems interacting with people. People who can't get over a situation and refuse to get it behind them wear on their friends and other people they meet. It will keep them from enjoying life and re-joining the human race. In business there is no patience with someone who can't handle betrayal or lying, especially if it is a salesperson calling on an important (but untrustworthy) customer. Eventually management will force a choice, get over it and move on or leave the company. If you have trouble managing anger and you find yourself harboring resentment, sales is not for you. You will eventually self-destruct. There is a famous saying in sales:


GET OVER IT

There is a popular stereotype that a salesperson has to deal with and overcome rejection. The other issue salespeople have to deal with is customers who lie, cheat, betray and deceive. Not only do you have to deal with it, but when you have an important customer who is deceitful, you can't just walk away from the business or worse, get back at them. You have to manage it and find a way to keep your business growing without getting screwed. Of course, salespeople don't always have untrustworthy customers, but if you have a long career in sales, eventually you will be faced with dealing with one. Again, when faced with the alternative, you can either choose to not call on the customer, or figure out a clever way to manage them. If you do get screwed by a customer, at least you know where you are with them. Some salespeople get deceived and never find out.

Getting over it is difficult to do but one of the key factors to keep you going is you have to remove yourself from the situation, not take it personally and use it to your advantage. If you find yourself in a bad situation with an untrustworthy customer, use your management or peers to help you strategize on how to work the situation successfully. It can be done but to be successful, you have to GET OVER IT first. This lesson is very important and teaches a good lesson about life. There will always be bumps in the road and you need to be able to handle them when they're dished out to you otherwise you'll live in a bitter world and deny yourself of enjoying life.

Customers who deceive their vendors will eventually screw themselves. They will get a reputation and it will spread among their suppliers and eventually they will find themselves without support, not getting favorable treatment and unable to find help in critical situations. Usually, there are one or two people who are responsible for this bad behavior. They don't realize they can't perpetuate this behavior long term and either self-destruct or be blissfully unaware why they can't get the support their competitor's get. It will hurt their business. Rarely, it is in the culture of the company but less so these days.

If the situation is bad you may have to ask yourself if you really want to call on a customer who is this bad. You may not be the type of salesperson who can handle untrustworthy people who are opportunistic and don't care how they treat their salespeople. If you are in this situation and aren't having fun, you may need to look at  moving on to another customer and letting someone else in your organization pick it up. If you don't have this option you really have to look at possibly leaving where you are and getting a new job. Customers who lie and cheat aren't fun to call on and if you don't like it, don't do it. Move on. Otherwise you'll end up being unhappy and that isn't worth it. It may take you a while to figure this out. I have been in the situation where a customer's business changed, they began to produce completely different products and brought in all new people to do it. These people were very difficult to deal with and were always looking for opportunities to screw me. I had worked at the company a while and saw the change happen. I realized to continue working there I would need to deal with these people on a day to day basis. I felt a root canal would be better than the situation I was faced with. I left the company and felt so much better. It was a good time to leave and the people who took over my position were as deceitful as the customer was. Perfect! Everbody was happy.

Use people you trust for counsel to figure out if you can comfortably manage the situation, change your account package with your manager or even leave the company. They will support you and so listen to them. But don't think of revenge with the customer. It's a bad path. Always remember the mantra; GET OVER IT.

Sales Tip:  Before you take action or make a decision to do anything, ask yourself if there is upside or downside if you do it. Think about this carefully. You could be surprised about what you discover. Many times I or someone in the company comes up with a great strategy such as a clever way to land a customer. On the surface it seems brilliant. Upon looking at the potential ways the outcome could end up, you may be surprised to discover there is only downside to do it and the risk isn't worth it. On the other hand, if it passes this test, you may create a great opportunity. Strategies can sound absolutely brilliant. Whoever comes up with the idea may impress themselves and the people they are with. Don't let the appreciation for how smart an idea is distract you from asking yourself if it will work.
Copyright 2005 by Tony Rea
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