Deception Works… Like Drugs

In your eagerness to get more customers, you may one day be tempted to make promises and claims that are deceptive or misleading. Resist the temptation.

Why? Not because it won’t work. I can tell you from experience that hype and deception do work. At least they do at first. Customers want to believe your product can perform miracles for them. So they have a built-in capacity to believe claims that are exaggerated — even absurd.

But if you sell a customer a Mercedes and deliver a Hyundai, he’s going to be disappointed. And a disappointed customer is not one who is likely to buy from you over and over again.

That may not seem like a big problem. But it is. Because initial sales are expensive to make. In the long run, they are generally made at breakeven or at a loss. So you need those back-end dollars for your profits.

Deceptive and misleading advertising destroys the relationship you have with your customers. This will eventually destroy your business. Not only that, but deceptive and misleading advertising is also dumb advertising. It requires no cleverness or persuasive skill, so you never develop those talents.

Furthermore, deceptive and misleading advertising locks you into a hypey cycle that is personally unrewarding.

Sell your product hard. Sell it strong. Sell it like you believe in it. And if you don’t, find a product you can believe in.

[Ed. Note: Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]