There was a time when cars didn’t have seat belts.
There was even a time when car makers hesitated to equip their cars with seat belts although they could. They feared bad publicity. After all, it would mean admitting that the cars were unsafe. Which could scare customers and keep them from buying.
So, they decided to not tell the whole story but rather hide the fact that cars do, as a matter of fact, crash sometimes … and hope that no-one notices it.
Today, we have way safer cars because people who cared surfaced the whole story. Obviously, the best way to deal with the truth was not to hide the problem but to face it, deal with it, and improve the product.
A good question to ask is this: If your customers knew what you know, would they buy?
Many companies don’t trust that their customers really would. And so, they bend the truth and maybe hide parts of it.
But some companies use this question as a motivation to improve the product. Not only will these companies end up with superior products, marketing will also be way easier.
All they need to do is tell a true story. Ultimately, it leads to customers who can – and do – trust you.
