You Can't Sell the Dream All the Time

Something I wish more companies would internalize… you can’t always sell the dream. Not 100% of the time, anyways.

I don’t care how lofty your goals, how transformative your product, or how positive your intentions. At some point it’s got to be:

• This probably won’t work for you… here’s why
• That outcome doesn’t seem likely
• I don’t think we can deliver

Or some variation thereof. I write this with software companies in mind, but this is broadly applicable.

Mine isn’t a case against optimism… it’s a gentle reminder of the power of realism. 

When we push back on people or companies hellbent on always selling the dream, they typically default to trying to discredit our opinions with cliches.

“Pessimists may often be right, but optimists end up rich,” is the common rebuttal. I agree, but my message is simple…

The realist gets credibility. 

Not everything is great all the time and the dream is never realized by everyone. If your intention is truly to help the customer, you need to learn to lead with the truth. Because sometimes we all need our expectations reset.

When I see founders and companies that refuse to do anything but sell the dream all of the time, I look at them with skepticism. If you don’t have the wherewithal to be real, you fail to be credible.

There’s a silver lining in all of this—the willingness to show a dose of realism seems to be magnetic for the type of customers that you actually want to attract! Those that are smart, and pragmatic, and have a drop of self awareness themselves. They can feel it in your business; even if you don’t directly serve them a dish of realism. 

Don’t sell the dream all of the time.

You might just build the credibility that helps you sell more.

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