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Morality: "a set of moral principles or values."
Selling is not perceived to be a professional vocation by many
people. This belief is perpetuated by buyers who have had a bad interaction
with a real estate salesperson, an obnoxious telemarketer, or an unethical
or immoral car salesperson.
Yet, the profession of sales is as old as mankind. People have
always bartered or "sold" things of value to one another. Yet
all of us who are salespeople by profession have been treated poorly by our
peers
at one time or another.
Being a sales manager complicates this because your sales team
is not you. They bring their own morals and business ethnics to your
company based on their economic background, religious beliefs,
and cultural upbringing. But as a sales manager, you must manage your sales
team's actions because their actions reflect
your company directly and indirectly to your prospects.
Often, your sales team will look to you for both formal and informal
clues as to your sales ethics and then they will feed off that direction.
If you have six-week "monthly" sales quotas, backdate
deposit contracts, or allow unethical salespeople to operate
with
the rest of your sales team, then you are sending out subliminal messages to
your team that sales is more important than ethics.
Aside from this being an inappropriate philosophy, it is
also bad business. Prospects generally do not start business relationships
until
the second sale. So misrepresenting your business offering to get a quick
sale or win a sales contest is not going to get
you the second sale.
Your sales team looks at sales management as a role model on
their expected behavior, so setting an ethical business standard is your job
as much as the salesperson's individual responsibility.
Now, you might say "why is Paul saying this, I am an ethical
person." That may be true, but your sales team is your customer-facing brand,
so it is
important that you communicate your ethical standards so there is no second
guessing what your expectations are.
Sales ethics go beyond how your team interacts with existing
customers and prospects. It also includes how your sales team communicates
among themselves and other department staff.
There are two elements of ethical standards in sales that
must be considered: 1) company standards and 2) individual responsibility.
These two elements are the responsibility of both the management team and
the salesperson.
6 Guidelines on How to Communicate and
Deploy Ethical Standards
to Your Sales Team
- Sales ethics cannot be an implied sales process. It must be
a verbalized and demonstrated sales process. You must communicate to your
sales team your expectations of what you expect and
what you
consider unacceptable. You must set the standard for all to be measured
by. At least once a quarter, discuss sales morality, sales ethics, and internal
company communication during a sales meeting.
- Develop a detailed presentation
sheet to be used for product demonstrations and have prospects sign-off
on on what the demonstration covered.
- Management must use a trickle-down ethical
approach and demonstrate the standards they expect
their sales force to adhere by. This includes
not allowing 35-day months to happen during a sales contest, not accepting
unauthorized freebies at the end of a contract negotiation, or allowing
salespeople to be generic in their description of your firm's product
or service capabilities.
- When
hiring salespeople, make them sign a
business clause on ethics in their job descriptions. (Check with your corporate
lawyer for recommendations on this.)
- Communicate to your sales team on a monthly basis what is expected of them with regard to selling what you have, not what they want to sell.
- Don't always assume that a salesperson is unethical just because a customer complains. Prospects often do not know how to buy and subsequently blame their buying inadequacies on the salesperson . . . instead of accepting responsibility themselves.
Selling is an honorable and well-paid professional. But like other professions,
there are times when individuals "stretch the truth" to create
income for themselves or visible achievement in front of others. When this
happens, this is a premeditated action of unethical behavior.
Other times, salespeople "stretch the truth" not in a premeditated
process, but due to their over-abundance of enthusiasm during the
sales cycle. This is still unethical behavior from the buyer's point of view
since
the inaccurate comments made by the salesperson may induce
the prospect to buy . . . and thus this behavior also needs to be managed
as well.
In sales, relationships start after the second sale. To get to the
second sale, set values that all can live by.
Writers Resource Box
| Paul DiModica is the author of the best-selling
books: Value Forward Selling, Value Forward Marketing, and Sales Management Power Strategies.
He is founder of Value Forward Group and addresses
thousands of executives each year on the subjects
of sales, marketing and strategy, including
executives and staff of Wells Fargo, Lanier Corporate, Adobe, IBM, Tyco/American Dynamics, Navitaire and many others. His content-rich
workshops and strategy sessions on leadership, sales, management
and marketing bring about immediate changes
and long-term results. For more information, visit http://www.valueforward.com |
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