Are there any Advantages of Telling Lies and Not Speaking the Truth

In my office, the sales team of a famous Job Portal Company was making a fervent sales pitch for selling their subscription. Getting this account and winning the business from their competitor was going to be a prestigious achievement for this Job Portal Company as my firms are in the HR Consultancy (Executive Search and CV Writing) business lines for more than 15 years now.

The sales team comprised of Area Manager, Zonal Manager and Territory Manager. I was amazed to see their enthusiasm and a host of unbelievably attractive promises. Finding these to be too good to be true, I decided not to take the decision immediately. But they persisted and kept following up. To make the long story short, two more such sales presentation cum follow up meetings were pushed my way by this team. Every time, one more senior person joined in.

Finally, I decided to give the business to them.

Soon it was going to be my turn to run after them. Even the basic services were not forthcoming. My calls were avoided, e mails were never answered and if I called on the customer help line a new person pretending to be unaware would take down the message with no one ever getting back to me.

I am sure, each one of has an experience to share and a story to tell about he or she being lied to. Only the character or situation or circumstances or place may change.

That brings us to examine that:

• Why do people lie?
• What are the advantages of hiding the truth?
• Is it the habit of person or the external circumstances which make a person lie?

It is worth its while to go deep and try to understand that why there is a need to hide the truth!

Without getting too technical or using the heavy jargon of a Psychologist or a Social Scientist, there definitely are clear advantages accruing to the person who is telling lies and is hiding the truth.

Such as:

Let us say you are in an electronic store with an intention to buy a latest TV. You finally shortlist one model each of two competing brands and are about to take a final decision.

Your research tells you that it is better to buy Brand 'A', whereas the salesman may try to convince you ( with the false information, of course) that the Brand 'B' has the speakers are of better quality, a better after sales service and in case of any defect the company replaces the TV rather than repairing etc.

Why did this salesman lie?

Clearly, he has a sales target to meet or he may be getting higher incentives on Brand 'B'.

Therefore, the easiest approach is to invent certain attractive features about the product which would be a cumbersome process for the prospective customer to verify and make a quick sale.

Apparently it would make a sense now to buy Brand 'B'. However, if you were to ask the salesman to show you the literature to confirm his claims, he may now start giving excuses.

Again he is telling lies to get out of the situation.

Similarly, a criminal when nabbed by police will always invent innumerable lies to escape the arrest and then the punishment.

Imagine it is the end of the accounting year. The teams of accountants and auditors are working until midnight to complete the work in time. There could be a work shirker who would feign to be sick and enjoy at home.

In a group of three young men, two are discussing and comparing the features of their newly acquired iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Smart phone. Not to be left out, the third one says that he too had purchased a Sony Xperia but that got stolen next day. Obviously, he fabricated this to have himself in this group.

No culture, society, belief or religion ever praises or encourages a liar. So why try short term gains which may over a period of time prove to be costly and troublesome.

Irrespective of reasons or circumstances, when a person tells lies, is not caught and apparently finds it to be beneficial, this becomes a compulsive habit.

It is not worth lying. Make speaking truth a habit. Try it!

"Author: Sundeep Kataria"