Ethical sales: What are they and why they are important

Sales have always been a complicated process. To talk a client into buying your product or solution above your competitors is not easy, especially if your product is not the best fit for the client. In these cases some companies are tempted to use unethical practices to make the sales, based on the commonplace that “business is business”. Although many businessmen think that way the only way to keep long lasting relations with your customers is through ethical sales. In this article I will address the importance of ethical sales and how to react to unethical practices.

What are ethical sales?

Ethical sales are those sale processes conducted with transparent, accurate and true information to the client and always thinking in providing the best solution to them. An organization that thinks that “sales most be closed no matter what”, are bound to engage in the use of unethical practices.

Importance of ethical sales

Although ethical sales seem a straightforward principle, in reality it is not easy to always live to it. Firstly because ethic is a relative concept; it depends on country’s culture and persons uprising. But secondly, surviving in this time of pandemic, inflation and relaxed moral is very hard, especially if you are a small to medium business. Hence the temptation to bend a little the truth with your customers is very strong.

If this is happening in your business, you must remind your sales reps of the importance of keeping faithful and true to your customer; and that the only way to keep long lasting sales within a customer is through a trustful relationship with him. This is especially true for distributors, where sales are on regular basis and brand image is tied to the performance and delivery of the distributor.

Common practices in ethical sales

There are many unethical practices or directives an organization can have to secure sales “no matter what”. We will focus on the most common we have found in the distribution sector.

Lack of transparency.

·????????It can be an omission, like not providing relevant information. This is within the limits of the ethical behavior because the sales rep strictly is not providing false information.

·????????Sales rep can provide misleading information on critical issues important for the decision; like features. This is very common in the software industry.

·????????Lying about issues relevant to the purchase decision.

Providing unknown references. Sometimes Sales Rep give a fake example of happy customers to lure the buyer into purchasing your products.

Downgrade the competitors based on rumors or fictitious data.

Over sale of products. This is a typical practice of unethical sales reps that are about quitting. It consists on selling more than you know the store can sell in a period.

Sale of products with close expiration date without notifying the client..

Bribing. Although the word has a negative connotation there is also a wide degree to it. In one extreme it can be simple gifts, but in the other one, it could involve money.

I hope this article has been helpful to you.?