The Dangers of Spin in the Internet Age

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I was recently involved in a situation with a colleague where we were considering buying one of a number of products for one of our businesses. As part of this, my colleague asked a question of one supplier (Supplier A) in relation to one of its competitors (Supplier B) and providing supplier B’s web address so that supplier A could answer the question properly.

At this point supplier A was the preferred and my colleague was asking a legitimate question that would probably have resulted in a decision in favour of supplier A.

The response we got from supplier A is when it all went wrong and led me to writing this blog in the first place.

The response from a sales person in supplier A suggested that they were the only credible company and any other company like supplier B was simply a new kid on the block and probably wouldn’t last 6 months. The sales person also went on to make suggestions that supplier B was offering loss leading services and other statements designed to discredit supplier B.

Remember that supplier A had been provided the web address for supplier B – it will be clear why in a few minutes.

On reviewing the response from supplier A, my colleague and I decided to check up on some of the statements made, just to be sure and found the following:

• Supplier B has been trading for 10 full years longer than supplier A – this took two web searches and 3 minutes to confirm.
• Supplier B’s business has been profitable every year bar its first year since it was founded and profits continue to grow steadily  - one web search, two documents downloaded and 5 minutes to confirm.
• Supplier B’s mature business gives it economies of scale that mean it can offer its products and services are lower cost while still being profitable – same search as point two. 

So in less than ten minutes supplier A, went from being our preferred choice to rejected for two reasons: 

• First they tried to spin us with a ‘stock’ answer that had not been researched, had no justification and was materially untrue. 
• Second, despite the fact that we gave them everything they needed to give us an honest answer, they chose to spin and as a result we lost faith in their sales person as a credible, honest person, which in turn meant we lost faith in supplier A as a whole.

Would you make a different choice in our shoes?

When selling it is natural to want to put your best foot forward and ensure your company is seen as the best. However in an age when information is so easy to get online about virtually anything, trying to spin a potential customer is both dangerous and I would suggest unprofessional. You will get caught and these days it doesn’t even take ten minutes.

This is just a recent example of something that so many companies and organisations fail to grasp. In the Internet age, the availability of accurate, information about virtually everything including from finance to customer satisfaction means that spin is becoming less and less easy or credible, especially if it is rushed as a way of addressing a potential negative. Anyone with any experience of social media can reel off half a dozen corporate brands that have made appalling mistakes with reactive spin that have cost them dear.

So what is the point of the first negative blog I have written in years? Well simply this, you can do brilliant work creating a positive business, a positive image and a great product, but it can be trashed in a matter of moments unless you are prepared to ensure that everyone working for your organisation takes the same care with your reputation it can very easily be damaged. 

The good news is that this is relatively easy because it is about process and education to make sure your people know how to manage this properly and keep your business' reputation 'in the black' as it were.

As always I hope this helps and it would be great to get the views and experiences of others.

By Tim Sandford