With a sales career that spans over 40 years, there are many highlights, positive and negative that I can happily reflect upon. Whether they brought me joy or disappointment, each was a learning experience and emphasizes the arduous journey in a sales career.
The sales career taught me a great deal about business but more importantly, it taught me about how to live my life, treating people with respect, honesty, truthfulness and integrity.
As a young salesman, I only thought about closing deals, generating income and profit, making the company successful which in turn would mean my personal success.
I was hungry, aggressive, eager, and enthusiastic, attributes that salespeople embrace and regard with pride. Getting the business was the overarching goal when I went to sleep at night and when I woke up in the morning.
It seemed nothing else mattered.
However, it didn’t take long to realize the importance of ethics in selling.
While I wanted everyone around me from my supervisors who directed me and from those whom I directed to regard me as a “good” salesman, I realized that being a good salesman was not enough.
I had to be a good and ethical salesman.
Ethics matters and closing a sale unethically meant stretching the truth, hiding the truth, or being deceptive and perhaps even dishonest. Being unethical just to get a sale is a sure way to failure. Presenting truth is easy because it can be supported by facts while deception requires manufacturing facts that do not exist. Understanding and believing in ethical selling allows one to build trust and confidence with the customer which is one of the reasons he buys.
It takes a long time to build trust and confidence while losing it is often instantaneous.
Deceiving a prospect to buy may result in a sale but chances are this is a short-term customer that will not buy from you a second time. If you are ethical, there is a chance the customer will be loyal and buy again. If you are unethical, there is no chance the customer will be loyal and ever buy again.
Selling is a profession, and those of us who are engaged in selling are professionals. We take pride in our reputation and protect this reputation every day. It is this reputation that allows us to retain our customer base and be successful in our career.
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