August 4th, 2006
My Number is Bigger than Yours
by Joshua Porter | 
12 Comments | shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/442
I promise you this is not another article about Businessweek’s sensationalism, Kevin Rose’s net worth, whether or not Netscape is desperate, or the size of 37signal’s customer base.
This is a short rant about lying to customers.
Companies lie to their customers all the time. They lie when they say that their customers come first. (their investors do) They lie when they say it isn’t about the money. (it always is) They lie when they say that they have so many users. (they never do) They lie when they say they’re worth so much money. (they never are)
So why do companies do this? Why are they so willing to risk the relationship with the people who help them live their for-profit lives?
Because they need to in order to justify it all. They need to tell themselves this story so that they can go home at night and sleep well. So they can hold to the consistent story that their deep-seated desire isn’t to sleep in piles of crisp $100 bills.
Because that’s the game they’re playing. That’s what everyone else in business does, and that’s what companies need to do to set themselves apart. If we say our #1 concern is our customers, they’ll believe us because they want to believe us.
Because customers don’t hold them accountable. They don’t ask the hard questions. They don’t make sure that companies tell them the truth in all that they do. Because they’re too busy leading their lives to care about what companies are really doing.
Seth Godin wrote a great book called “All Marketers are Liars”. He wasn’t really saying that all marketers are liars. He meant that all customers believe what they want to believe, and marketers can take advantage of that. He says:
“Successful marketers don’t tell the truth. They don’t talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.”
That’s what’s going on here. Saying something doesn’t make it true. Never has, never will. But truth is hardly the point here. The story is the point.
And, as it’s a story, you can fool some of the people some of the time…but the people who aren’t fooled are the ones who you never hear from. They’re the silent ones. The ones who read this stuff, shake their head, and move on. The ones who (unlike me – apparently) know that posts like this do very little to stem the onslaught of false marketing and outright lying by the for-profit companies in the land.
Previous
Google and Yahoo Design Throwdown
Links to this Post
Comments
1. Jeff Watkins 10:29am, Sat 5th, 2006
OK. What happened? This sounds a bit like a personal I-just-got-burned rant…
Of course, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I think you’re 100% right in the general case. While there are honest companies, they are rarer than I’d like.
And don’t forget, even dishonest companies have honest employees: I’ve spoken off the record with customers, prospects and even potential employees before to quietly set the record straight when I think someone has been egregiously dishonest with them. Naturally, I start any such discussion by signalling that I’ll completely deny ever having the discussion — which is probably itself self-serving and dishonest.
2. Alex Barth 11:09am, Sat 5th, 2006
Ok, here is my rant:
> Because they’re too busy leading their lives to
> care about what companies are really doing.
Today we are permanent customers. Probably we’re even customers while we are sleeping. We are completely soaked up in being customers. In fact, you could pose the question: is there anything that we are being more than being customers?
So, yeah: Busy lives. Busy with ever being customer somewhere else.
3. Josh 1:23pm, Sat 5th, 2006
I get burned all the time, but there was no specific issue that motivated me to write this.
I was just thinking about why companies over-inflate numbers in general. Is it to make themselves feel better, influence customers, or because nobody is watching them?
Those are three possibilities.
4. Reuven 10:12am, Sun 6th, 2006
What amazed me wasn’t Kevin Rose on the cover of Business Week for running a company that barely breaks even…what amazed me was seeing KEVIN ROSE on the cover of PEOPLE MAGAZINE!.
Way to go, Kev! We’re so proud of you.
5. Orion 9:00am, Mon 7th, 2006
Thanks for the great discussion. I have to think hard about this because I also want to sleep on piles of money. That’s a hyperbole but it reveals my/our nature on the inside. I just wouldn’t want to lie to anyone to get there but aren’t we trained to do so.
6. Jared Spool 8:42am, Wed 9th, 2006
It’s a good thing only businesses lie:
etc., etc., etc.
7. Josh 1:36pm, Wed 9th, 2006
Yeah, Jared. Good thing!
8. Ben 11:09pm, Fri 11th, 2006
The companies who tell outright lies in their stories will eventually be found out as more people use their product. Word of mouth takes care of false stories.
9. David H Dennis 11:48am, Sat 19th, 2006
The idea that money is everything and businesses are only in it to make money is, surprisingly, not always true. Other goals exist and are often considered more important by the business owners.
Sure, making money is always a major goal. But at the same time there is an idealistic streak in many companies that makes them do things against their financial best interest.
For example, a friend of mine built a haunted attraction. He said it was for the money, but it was really to satisfy him. So he put much more money into the house than it would ever bring back. At one level, he knew this and at another level it didn’t really matter to him because he wanted to gain personal satisfaction with the result.
A few people I have worked with have paid failing employees for months after it was abundently clear that they would not bring back any kind of decent return. In one case, this form of payment was such a high percentage of revenues that it actually endangered the company.
Steve Jobs of Apple wants to make money, but I think he wants to make a great product, something he can be proud of, even more.
I’m building a social networking site not because I think it’s what will make me the most money, but because I think it’s the one thing I’m best at in the world and the space where I can genuinely make a difference.
There are a lot safer things I could do that would probably bring me more money. But life is partially about making money and partially about trying to find some kind of happiness in what you do.
I think many business owners are trying to look at both, and strike a balance between doing things good for the world and maximizing their profits.
D
10. Mark 11:05am, Wed 25th, 2007
In fact you just need to care about people (customers) and money will come.