LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY
Post #2 in a series of 3 of stuff you should NEVER do. This post deals with the value of personal integrity. Sales is probably the only profession where it appears that systematically not telling the truth can reap positive results. Don’t believe it. Your reputation for personal integrity follows you around forever. Think long-term and your reward will come in the form of lasting professional relationships.
Where do we start with this? “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” may create an image of a romantic rascal for some, like Charles Dickens’ street urchin from Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger. In real life nothing could be further from the truth. Lack of personal integrity in the sales profession is a cause of both anger and embarrassment for the majority of Salespeople. It can in no way be included in a list of sales skills which should be learnt!
LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY #1 – Lying (!)
Hidden costs, fictitious product attributes, convenient “mistakes”, exaggerating, making false claims, “misdiagnosing” and hiding specific information are all demonstrations of lying. If you keep getting away with it, good luck, but you are not welcome here as a subscriber. If the Customer catches you lying you won’t be welcome there either and it will be ¡Adios! maybe to your career in Sales.
LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY #2 – Criticizing the competition
Click on this link to our post Unintentional Criticism of your Customer and engrave this timeless advice from Dale Carnegie on your memory: “Any fool can criticize, condemn or complain, and most fools do.” (from How to Win Friends and Influence People) Criticizing the competition makes you look cheap, unprofessional, and as having little confidence in your offering.
LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY #3 – Stuffing the deal
It may make sense at the time because “it’s only 1% extra on the deal” or whatever, but any manoeuvre which artificially inflates the deal size – like adding an unnecessary option here and there? – generally gets discovered sooner rather than later. Customers are not stupid. Do this and you may find it difficult to sell again to the same Contact or worse, to the same Company.
LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY #4 – Failing to keep a promise
Dealing with bad Salespeople through the years has taught Customers that they can pull as many bluffs, gambits and bum steers as they like, while you, the top Salesperson, must remain whiter than white. If you fail to keep a promise, you only give them a chance to reinforce the negative stereotype. However, sometimes they really do have deadlines to meet, and we should do our best to help them. If you just simply can’t do it, tell them. Under-promise and over-deliver, never the opposite.
LACK OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY #5 – Over familiarity
You have to be friendly and likeable if you are to develop a wide array of Contacts in any organization you sell to – knowing who to call if the bill doesn’t get paid is a good example. Over familiarity, on the other hand, can create the wrong impression. Keep yourself at arm’s length at all times and don’t get yourself pigeon-holed as “That friendly Salesperson” (particularly with the opposite sex). No-one sells to their friends. Your job is to do business.
You may think “Well, that’s not so bad” for a couple of these, but it only takes one person, the wrong one, to be offended by the way you conduct yourself and you’ll lose the business.
FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
- If you’re not sure how to follow up to this you’re probably beyond redemption, so get out of Sales before you end up in jail (it happens, really….)
- If you still think you deserve redemption, read the first post in the 3 part series about Annoying Sales Behavior
- The third post will ask you How well do you defend your Company and Colleagues? Will you pass the test?
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