Don’t Make Stuff Up

I was having a discussion recently with a friend.  We were the trying to figure out where the tipping point is regarding statistics in a business presentation.  When it does become overkill?   He said to me at one point “Quoting statistics is pointless anyway. Everyone knows that 95% of statistics that people quote are fabricated – made up on the spot”.

When we both stopped laughing at the paradoxical ludicrousness of his statement we moved on to deciding when we should meet for lunch.

Later on, it hit me that a lot of people make all kinds of stuff up in order to support their position.

Now if you want to do that in your personal life, that’s your prerogative but if you do it when you are trying to make a sale it can be very costly to in the long run.

HOW SO, JEDI MASTER?

In case the obvious moral and ethical reasons aren’t enough, there’s a totally self serving reason not to be “generous with your business facts”. You will get caught!

When someone finds out that you exaggerated or embellished or lied about something they will tell others and your credibility in the community will diminish.  Once you are branded with  “You have to take what he says with a grain of salt” your business could begin an unstoppable downward spiral.