What The Truth Competes With

If you’re trying to tell the truth in your marketing, if you’re trying to appeal to truthfulness with what you sell, it helps to know what you’re up against. It’s going to be a tough sell.

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When they already made their decision, you might be telling them the truth, but you’re competing with momentum and investment that will first need to be undone. Truth won’t win, not until something changes with their current situation.

When the truth requires them to act, you’re competing with their other priorities, and you’re competing with inaction. You’re better off waiting until they’re on the move, because inaction has strong appeal.

When they belong to a group with a belief, you’re competing with the comfort and the social guarantees that the group provides. There might be a way in for your message, but you might need to win the trust of other members of the group, first. A startup is a group with a belief, a family is a group with a belief, a suite of executives is a group with a belief, a profession is a group with a belief.

When they’re already paying for a specific feeling, you’re competing with the absence of that feeling. You’re better off matching the feeling first, with your product or service, and then introduce a way forward from there.

When they hold their whole identity within a lie, you’re competing with time. Sooner or later, the truth will bring down their guards, and you’ll be able to tell your message.

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In every situation, truth has an immediate disadvantage, but gets rewarded by patience. When a person experiences a struggle, when they come to a moment when they say “enough is enough”, your truth will have an opening. If you’ve only been a source of trust, their struggle will lead them to you, hoping you’ll finally tell them the truth.