Sales Ethics - The Inner Conflict

Last week while on travel, we were on retail development calls and also putting up some new posters in retail outlets. One sales officer, clearly a motivated fellow, was leading in the discussions with many retailers. That he shared an excellent rapport and relationship with most of them was immediately evident.

In each call the Sales officer was also required to put the new branding stickers in the retail outlets. While the Sales Officer's sales skills did impress me, his fixing of the branding stickers apalled me. As we exited the first outlet, I found our branding stickers stuck in a little wayward manner on the shop window pane, which obviously did not look aesthetic at all. I pulled out the sticker to demonstrate how attention to detail in such matters makes a favuorable impression, and positioned the sticker properly to the clear satisfaction of the shop owner.

Our Sales Officer having learned some bit on aesthetics and symmetry, then proceeded to show-off his newly acquired skills, The next sticker in the next retail shop was placed exactly at the centre of a large branding panel (though not of a competitor) installed with a lot of love and care by another respected company. By the time we noticed this, it was too late. Removing the sticker would have torn the other panel up and completely de-face it. Leaving it there was not only defacing it, but also spoiling the reputation of company. I was unable to decide which way to turn.  This incident set me wondering.

Is Sales Ethics dead? 

A lot of times I get this feeling from some salesperson that there is a thin line between outright lying and not disclosing all facts. Is there no inner conflict for a sales person at all today? I remember this syndrome having affected me very early in my career when I too believed that this is the way a salesman was supposed to be. But the inner conflict soon became un-bearable. One soon discovers that our childhood teaching of not lying really is a better option after all. Situations do become very bad for that moment, but your courage to share unpleasant truth always leads to stronger  relationships based on the foundation of trust. 

So why is this overall lack of basic Sales ethics so prevalent? Is it because customers have started demanding too much? Many times when faced with impossible delivery commitments from customers, the response from a salesman is simple - no company can deliver in such a short time. The question is only about which salesman is able to handle the pressure of delayed deliveries.

If this is indeed so, why are customers getting so unreasonable?

I found the answer to this question last month whille travelling from Pune to Delhi, when I chanced upon a very important prospect sitting next to me on the flight. We struck up a conversation, and one of the issues I wished to indirectly check was this issue. His responses clarified this "delayed" decision making by customers today.

There are plenty of jobs available in the market. As a result, a salesman is getting more enquiries and leads in his lap than he can handle. As a consequence, he has no time for any real exchange of information or engagement with a customer. All products get commoditised, without consideration about the suitability of the product at all. In this process, price becomes the only weapon an executive fights with. And the race for a lower price is always longdrawn and time consuming - which finally impacts both the buyer as well as the seller. There is no exchange of value.

Somewhere this viciuos cycle has began to have an adverse impact on our sales profession. The only way to get ethics back in our system, is to break this cycle somewhere. And to me the easiest available opportunity to break this ethical cycle is at the point of spending more time in customer engagement.

Please let me have your thoughts on this. I would welcome both agreements as well as disagreements which would help me build this thought better.

Going forward, I would also like to start developing thoughts on how can we begin to improve customer engagement? By the way, better engagement also means great and profitable business.

Would also like to mention two good sites I read on Sales ethics. I am mentioning those here for more reading on the subject: http://www.principledprofit.com/sales-ethics.html

Another site which helps us look at this topic in the lighter vein is http://www.grantland.net/salesethics.htm . Hope you enjoy both.

Do let me have your comments, and help me become a better sales professional. Sphere: Related Content