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Selling

The Secret of Ethical Selling

Posted by

Ian Brodie on March 23rd, 2012.

Ethical Selling: Three wise monkeys What's the secret of being able to sell ethically without being manipulative, salesy or pushy?

Marketing.

No, seriously. It's marketing.

Here's why:

Why Marketing is the Key to Ethical Selling

Let's think about what might cause someone to sell unethically. To manipulate or push someone into buying something they perhaps don't really want or need?

Or to bring it right home, what might cause you or me to sell unethically?

I'm a nice person. I'm sure you're a nice person. In fact overwhelmingly, most people I know are nice people.

None of us wants to sell unethically. So why might we do it?

Selling is a pretty simple process when it comes down to it. You sit down with someone, disucss their problems and challenges, goals and aspirations. You talk about what it would take to solve or achieve them – and what the impact would be. Then you discuss how you might be able to help and whether you're a good fit for working with them.

Why might that conversation stray and become manipulative?

The answer is desperation.

If you're the only potential client a professional has met for a month and he needs you to hire him so he can pay the mortgage and feed the kids, then the chances are that even if you're not a perfect fit, he's going to try to “sell” you.

Desperate professionals overstep the mark. If they really need the sale, they perhaps claim their service is that little bit better than it actually is. They ignore some of the alternative options the client could take even though they should really mention them. They try to get the client to sign up quickly, instead of when the time is right for them.

So if it's you, how do you stop that desperation causing you to sell unethically?

Well, you either develop an iron will…

Or in the real world, you remove the cause of the desperation.

And that's where marketing comes in.

Marketing makes sure you have a service that's in demand. That lots of potential clients want and need and that will deliver great value to them.

And marketing makes sure you have a steady stream of leads – more than you need – so that when you sit down with that potential client, he's not the only one you've seen that month. You have a backlog of potential clients to see.

And that way, when he's not a perfect fit, or the timing isn't right for him, there's no need for you to push or drive for a sale you really shouldn't be pushing for.

You can do what's best for the client and move on, confident that the bills will still be paid and little Johnny will still have plenty to eat. Because there's a steady flow of high quality leads coming in to your business. If this one isn't right, the next one will be, or the next one.

Truth be told: ethical selling is pretty easy if you've got more leads than you need.

So marketing, good marketing, is the key to ethical selling.

–> By the way, one of the very best resources on behaving (and selling) ethically is Charlie Green's Trust Matters blog. Lots of very thought provoking articles that will help you come to grips with this tricky topic.

Ethical Selling (and much, much more) at the Trust Matters blog.

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Photo Credit: Anderson Mancini via Compfight

Featured

Mindset

Ethics in Sales

Posted by

Ian Brodie on June 13th, 2008.

A recent post by Colin Wilson – Are You Lying Comfortably (now, sadly not available on the blogosphere) – got me thinking about ethics in sales.

It's something people new to, or outside of sales often worry about. How ethical is it to “manipulate” people with salesmanship to buy a particular product or service?

I think one of the toughest areas is in the choice of what you sell. By this, I don't mean choices over whether you sell cigarettes, alcohol or sex products (although your ethical stance there is important, of course). What I mean is selling something you know your customer doesn't really need.

There's really a scale here.

Ethics in Sales: To Sell or Not To Sell?

Selling something you know your customer doesn't need is, in my view, clearly unethical. A professional salesperson has a responsibility to ensure that he or she only sells what their customer will genuinely benefit from – or at the very least, if a customer is intent on buying something they don't really need then the salesperson should warn them of that.

At the other end of the scale, selling something that your customer really needs, where your product is clearly the best available solution for them is unquestionably ethical.

But there's a potentially grey area in between. What if the client needs your product, but you know of a competitors product which meets that need even better? Do you tell them about the competitors product that's a better fit – or keep quiet and just sell yours?

That's a tricky call. I know many salespeople who would say that as long as you “do no evil”, as long as the customer benefits from your product – then it's not your duty to tell them about the better product they could get. That isn't my view – but I'm OK with it. The customer still benefits – and really, it's their responsibility to find the very best product for themselves.

Personally though, If I believe a competitor has a better product, then I'll recommend my customer gives it a look over. I just don't feel right if I know there is a better solution out there but I withold that information.

In the end, I believe this stance actually helps me. As a consultant, one of the critical success factors for me to win and keep clients is to establish a deep trusting relationship. How can I hope to do that if I deliberately withold important information from my client? I believe that my honesty in this helps deepend the bonds of trust with clients – and helps win me further work.

But at the end of the day, holding strong to my position on ethics in sales, whether it benefits me or not, it just feels right. And that's perhaps the biggest benefit of all.

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Update: I've written a more recent article on ethics in sales here. It gives a very practical and unexpected solution to the ethical conundrum.