Vranyo in Sales

vranyo :: the Russian tactic of saying outrageous things and expecting to get away with them.

Here's another definition, via glossophilia;

“You know I’m lying, and I know that you know, and you know that I know that you know, but I go ahead with a straight face, and you nod seriously and take notes.”

“Pioneered by the Soviets and perfected by Putin".

We've seen a shameful amount with shocking deceit applied by the aggressor during the completely unjust and barbaric invasion ordered by Putin into Ukraine.

Thankfully, apologists for the megalomaniacal bully in The West are thin on the ground.

If only the same could be said for the fifty-eight abstemious nations. From China and India, through South Africa and Singapore, to Brazil and UAE, their complicit posturing so disgraceful it deserves punishment too.

In one way, I sense experiences of the Cold War remain strong in the memory.

Namely that pretty much everything the autocratic regimes said, turned out to be lies.

That's not to say the Free World were always beyond reproach - and let's face it, the American-led 'policing' of the past three decades was often shambolic - but we in democracies do have access to, can voice our opinion on and are able take action about what's actually going on.

One example springing to mind was visions of Comical Ali. The spokesman of despotic Saddam. Keen to deny the various atrocities metered out on fellow Iraqis, despite filmed evidence to the contrary.

You can also look back to the Serbian conflict of the mid-90s. Remember an exasperated David Owen, Europe's chief peace negotiator? Bewildered to abject dismay by not just the lies of their leaders, but how happy they were to lie outright to him, over and over.

The Kremlin has its own version today. And a crew of kleptocrats happy to spout the same line.

Vranyo. Relentlessly spewed. Time and time again. Truly a tragic world of "make-believe".

In Sales we can encounter our own such vile bile.

The Competitor that tells a bare-faced fib. Slander setting out some major deficiency about our organisation, product or results. Or - and this is a really common whopper - wildly false claims about what's imminent in their next product updates.

Not to mention the prospect that may be telling you porkies.

With the case buyer-side, you can verify and rectify with those also touched by your proposed solution.

With malicious competition though, our task is tougher.

I tend to never react directly to scurrilous accusations. You don't want to battle on someone else's agenda.

Likewise with their vapourware. That's the old software label for selling something that will never materialise. It is the here and now, coupled with track records that counts.

In both cases though, I feel we can today drop in to conversation with our potential client this concept of vranyo.

'All I can tell you, is that we always avoid even the slightest brush with vranyo from our mouths ... '

Then listing the truths of your proposal which ultimately blow up those of the tyrannical bent.