Playbook: Finding the Truth When Everyone Is Lying

Every vendor stretches the truth somewhere in your sales process, and most buyers respond to all of it the same way, forgiving everything or torching a good deal over nothing. In this Playbook, Max Clark sorts vendor lies into three categories, a harmless stretch, one rep’s invented promise, and a lie the whole company stands behind, and gives a different response for each. Then he turns the mirror on buyers, the shopped quote, the invented deadline, the fake executive sponsorship, because buyers run the same three plays back. Keep guessing which lie you just caught, or put someone neutral in the room who ends the guessing entirely. That’s the only fix that actually works.

Run this the next time a vendor claim doesn’t sit right

1. Creative embellishment. The provider is stretching into a category they do not quite fit, out in the open. Calling a router with a config page “SD WAN” is the pattern. Costs you nothing to see through. Note it, move on.

2. One rep’s invention. A specific promise nobody at the company authorized. “I text the CEO directly” is the tell. This is a person problem, not a company problem. Get a different rep, do not walk from the vendor over it.

3. Institutional fiction. The whole sales org repeats the same claim with a straight face, and leadership blessed it. When the dishonesty is the official story, that is the provider you cut.

Now run your own last vendor call through the same three buckets, from the vendor’s side of the table. Telling three competitors they’re each the front runner, that’s your version of Bucket 1. Inventing a deadline that doesn’t exist to force urgency, that’s Bucket 2. Claiming executive sponsorship that doesn’t exist because your whole team has quietly agreed to say it, that’s Bucket 3.

Keep guessing which lie you just caught, or put someone neutral in the room who ends the guessing entirely. That’s the only fix that actually works.

The Playbook

01:07 — The trigger and why it matters 02:47 — The mistake most buyers make 03:16 — The play, step 1 03:46 — The play, step 2 04:14 — The play, step 3 04:31 — What to watch for next

Resources mentioned

• SD WAN, the capability category vendors most often mislabel
• Public company 10-K filings, used to fact check inflated market share claims
• AWS cloud spend, used as the scale comparison that exposes a fake top-customer claim

About the show

Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format, 10 to 15 minutes, one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today’s Playbook is one you’re facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom