A salesman representing a brand name car shop knocked on our door to sell us discounted oil changes.

The offer was fairly good as far as offers go. You pay for a certain number of oil changes up front and the cost of each one is substantially below retail.

All good and fine.

But I said no. Not really interested. I told him I plan to keep taking my Honda Odyssey to Ralph Schomp, the dealer I bought it from.

Why I Turned Down a “Good” Deal

A few years ago, my father-in-law started up an auto repair shop with a couple partners.

Dishonesty and all kinds of fraud plague the auto repair business, so their goal was to create a shop where everybody was totally honest — no shenanigans.

And yet in spite of this stated goal, my father-in-law struggled to find honest mechanics.

One of his mechanics kept telling every single customer they needed a new ball joint. Obviously, my father-in-law became suspicious. How could every customer need a new ball joint?

One night he closed up shop and told his best mechanic to come back to work an hour after closing. He didn’t give his mechanic any prior information. All he said was, “Give this car a check and tell me if it needs any work.”

Turns out, everything was fine with the car. It didn’t need a new ball joint at all.

But what “ball joint guy” had figured out is that most people have no idea how cars work, so they’ll believe anything you tell them. If you tell them they need a new ball joint, they almost have no choice but to believe you.

“Ball joint guy” had also figured out that replacing ball joints was quite lucrative. High labor cost, low material cost, so he got to keep a bigger piece of the profit.

Needless to say, they fired “ball joint guy” pronto.

It’s Not Just Mechanics Who Are Dishonest

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the problems my father-in-law ran into while trying to run an honest shop.

Later on, he discovered that one of his partners (who was also the operations manager) had been intentionally overcharging customers and pocketing the difference.

So if the cost of the repair was $100, he’d charge $110 and keep the $10 difference for himself. Over a period of a year or two, he stole around $20K from the till.

Figuring the whole thing out was an accounting nightmare. It took a couple months of secret monitoring to collect enough records and evidence. They literally had to let the partner keep stealing until they had built their case!

Long story short, they arrested the dishonest partner, brought their case against him, and he was found guilty. He went to jail, and he’s still there.

Trust Trumps Price

Based on my father-in-law’s “insider experience,” I’m personally very hesitant to try any auto repair shop. I figure most mechanics are like “ball joint guy” — making up imaginary repairs that put more money in the mechanic’s pocket.

But I feel good about Ralph Schomp. They’re not the cheapest, but they’ve provided consistent quality service. They honor their price quotes. They always throw in a complimentary car wash. And they treat everybody with respect.

It’s one of the best dealerships I’ve ever done business with (or even visited).

So the brand name company wants me to buy cheap oil changes from a door-to-door salesman? It just seems like a gimmick to get me into the repair shop where they’ll try to get me to pay for expensive, imaginary repairs.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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Do you have kids?

If you do, then you’ve probably already faced the age-old moral dilemma of what you tell your kids about Santa Claus.

In my experience, most parents choose to tell their kids that Santa Claus is real, and that he really does travel around the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer delivering presents to all the good children.

And parents do their best to keep their kids believing.

They put gifts under the tree that say, “From Santa.” They have their kids leave milk and cookies out at bedtime — and then the parents eat the food themselves. Some even climb on their roofs to imitate the clattering of hooves.

Frankly, Santa Claus is one of the top 10 biggest lies ever perpetuated by an “intelligent” society.

But we do it because it’s all in good fun — and nobody gets hurt! At least that’s the idea.

I’ve chosen from the beginning to tell my kids that Santa Claus isn’t real. And what’s amazing is that in spite of my truth-telling, my daughter still wants to believe!

It’s part peer pressure, for sure. All of her little girl friends believe in Santa and are fairly outspoken about it. My daughter, being in the minority, wants to be a part of the group.

But it’s also partly because the story of Santa Claus is a story my daughter wants to believe in. And because she wants to believe in it, she’s more likely to ignore the “bah humbug” advice of her parents.

Which brings up a major selling strategy…

Tell Stories People Want to Believe In

If you’re going to tell a story in advertising, it’s not so much about telling a believable story as it is telling a story people want to believe in.

It may seem like I’m splitting hairs here, but the distinction is a big one. So let me say it again:

Instead of telling believable stories, tell stories people want to believe in.

I think this is a big reason why John Caples’ piano story resonated so strongly with consumers. They wanted desperately to believe that with minimal effort they could bowl people over with their newly-found musical talent.

Of course, telling TRUE stories people want to believe in is the best story-telling strategy of all. If the story John Caples had told was actually true, it would have been even more compelling.

But let’s get back to the theme of this post — LIES.

If you’re going to tell lies to your kids about Santa Claus, what’s to keep you from telling lies to your prospects, customers, and clients?

I mean it’s really not much of a stretch when you think about it. If you preach the gospel of Santa Claus, then maybe it’s okay to promise customers they’ll make $1 million dollars one minute after they buy your product.

When It’s Okay to Tell Stories in Your Ads

Obviously, just because a story is fiction doesn’t make it a lie. Good fiction stories always contain truths even though the stories themselves may be entirely made up or patched together from numerous life experiences.

That’s why stories are so powerful; because of the nuggets of truth buried in the story. The key is to simply make it clear that your fiction is indeed fiction.

Where we run into trouble is when we start representing a fictitious story as God’s honest truth. Now that is a lie.

Ben Settle left a comment here on this blog about the John Caples’ ad saying: “If you’re going to say a specific product gave someone who does not exist results, then be up front about it being a dramatized fictional story.”

Ben gave as an example an old Maxwell Sackheim ad. The headline “He Didn’t Even Kiss Me Goodnight!” was then followed by the subhead “A Dramatized Story About A Wife Who Worried About Her Husband.”

I think this is a great technique. Flag your ad as a dramatized story… or a parable… or whatever. This immediately clears up any misunderstandings — and may even take your credibility up a notch.

Just make it clear when you’re using a made-up story… and when you’re telling a true story. And never, ever represent a made-up story as being real. This way you can never be accused of lying or being dishonest in your advertising.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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