I was speaking to a group of professional sales people in
Johannesburg, South Africa, on the subject of integrity in
business. At dinner later in the evening, my host, who had been
sitting in the audience, sheepishly shared with me that several
of the people seated near her snickered at the idea. Evidently,
to them sales was just a series of transactions, and the
salesperson's job was to ring as much money out of each
transaction as possible, under whatever means were necessary.
Their position was, I believe, both sad as well as unwise. I
believe that there are certainly practices in the business world
where morality perfectly coincides with wise business. Integrity
is one such practice. It is both good business as well as good
morals.
I believe it is such good business that salespeople should adhere
to a no-exceptions policy of maintaining absolute integrity. I'm
not going to make the case for absolute honesty as a moral
policy. That's better left to our churches to do. There is,
however, a powerful case to be made for honesty from a practical
point of view. Honesty is a powerful sales strategy that is
probably more important today than ever before.
It works like this. If you have integrity, you save your customer
time. In today's frenzied world, time is more precious than money
for a lot of people. If your customers cannot believe you, then
they must spend hours, days or weeks of precious time confirming
the representations you have made. If, however, they can believe
you, then they don't feel the need to check for the veracity of
every fact or statement.
Here's an illustration. A few years ago, we attempted to purchase
a condominium. The condo was in a resort location, and had been
used as a rental unit. So it came fully furnished, down to the
silverware and cooking utensils. We thought it was a good value,
a wise investment, and offered the owner exactly his asking
price. Shortly thereafter, word came from the real estate agent
that the owner, on receiving our full price offer, had increased
his price.
The owner may have been looking at his action as a slick
negotiating ploy. We saw it as a lack of integrity. If we
couldn't believe his stated price, then we couldn't believe any
of the representations he had made. We would be reduced to
counting the number of knives and forks instead of believing the
inventory sheet provided for us. We didn't want to waste the time
checking out every aspect of the deal. If we couldn't trust some
of the representations by the owner, then we couldn't trust any.
And, if we couldn't trust any, it wasn't worth it to us to take
the risk in dealing with him. We walked away from the deal.
We saw the owner's lack of integrity as causing us to invest a
great deal of time to assure ourselves that the risk was worth
the money.
In this case, we were the buyers who saw the seller's lack of
integrity as causing us to spend more time on the project. We
chose not to.
The same is true of your customers. The more your customer trusts
you, the less risk your customer feels in dealing with you, and
the less time necessary to invest in understanding the product,
service or program you are offering. From the customer's
perspective, it's easier and less risky to deal with someone you
trust than with someone you don't.
And that can translate directly into dollars. I'm always willing
to pay more for something if I can buy it with less risk. In
other words, if I can buy it from a company or person I can
trust. On the other hand, I'd rather not buy something at all if
I have suspicious feelings about the vendor.
Here's another example. A few years ago I grew jealous of my
neighbor's lawn. His was far greener, thicker and fuller than
mine was. It was because he had a lawn care service fertilize his
lawn several times each year. I determined to do the same thing.
So I obtained the name and phone number of the company he used,
formed an idea of what the service would cost me, and decided to
do business with that company.
I called the company, ready to buy the service. When I inquired
about the types of service available, the salesperson indicated
that there were several options available. Now, I'm a visually
oriented person, and I like to make decisions based on what I
read, not on what I hear. So, I said, "OK, why not come out and
do the first application, and then leave me a brochure so that I
can review my options, and then I'll make a decision?" The
salesperson agreed.
We then reviewed the details of my location, and the approximate
date for the first fertilizer application. It was a deal. The
salesperson then repeated our agreement, saying, "OK, we'll be
out to do the first application and we'll leave a brochure, and
then you can cancel at any time with 30 days notice."
"What?" I said.
He repeated his comment. "Wait a minute," I said. "I only agreed
to one application. I'm not committing to any ongoing contract
until I check out all the options."
"But that's not how we do it," the salesperson stammered.
"No," I said.
"But, But..." more stammers.
"NO." I said again. "Forget it. Cancel me."
What happened? Here I was, as good a prospect as there ever was.
I was ready to purchase, having decided to use this company, even
calling them to make the purchase. Yet something in what the
salesperson said raised a red flag in my mind, and made me doubt
the integrity of the person, and by inference, the company. He
had originally said that I would be billed for only one
application, and then implied that I was committing to an ongoing
program.
I viewed that as being deceitful, or at best manipulative. If I
can't trust them on that, what can I trust them on? There are
lots of other lawn care companies, and the next one in the yellow
pages got my business.
Life's too short, and business is too busy to deal with people
you can't trust. The question, then, for you as a salesperson is
this: Do your customers see you as trustworthy?
That's a difficult question to answer. You can't just ask them,
because you know you are unlikely to hear a candid response. But
you can gain a sense of their perception of you by looking for
some of the symptoms of trust or a lack of it.
For example, if you find your customers sometimes buying from a
higher priced source, or buying a product or service you consider
to be inferior, it may be that your customer doesn't trust you!
On the other hand, if you find your customers accepting your
word, and choosing to deal with you, even when you are offering
an identical product at a higher price, then chances are they do
trust you. Your reputation for honesty and integrity has been a
smart business strategy, resulting in measurable benefits to you.
Unfortunately, a reputation for trustworthiness and honesty is
not a result of one event or a single transaction. It doesn't
develop out of some clever phrases you memorize and repeat.
Rather, it develops over time as you adhere to a set of ethical
standards in small as well as big things. It's not a technique
you use, rather it's the person you chose to become. As you
strive to adhere to the standard of absolute honesty and
integrity in all that you do, you'll develop a character trait
that will become evident to everyone around you, including your
customers. And that is good business as well as good morals.
To review my suggested set of ethical guidelines for salespeople,
take a look at my "Ten Commandments for the Ethical Salesperson."
Then, commit yourself to implementing a powerful and effective
sales strategy - integrity.
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