Building Trust and Sales Ethics

The Ethical Dilemma

A fundamental competitive strategy of a growing number of organizations is to build long-term mutually beneficial relationships with their customers and other stakeholders. The ability of those organizations’ salespeople to earn their customers’ trust is essential to the success of that strategy.

Compatibility Dependability
Expertise
Customer
Oriented
Candor

• You have the opportunity to steal/take
$100,000 from your company with absolute certainty that you would not be detected or caught. Would you do it? Why or why not?

• Ethics are moral standards by which actions and situations can be judged o Honesty o Fairness o Trust

Case discussion: How Low Will You
Go?
• What are the issues in the case?
• What should Bob do? What are some possible consequences?
• What would you do if you were a salesperson in this organization?
• Thoughts about the panel?

Ethics refers to right and wrong conduct of individuals and institutions of which they are a part.
Clearly
Wrong
Ethical
Dilemma
Clearly
Right

• Corporate benefits: o Allow salespeople to identify what their firm recognizes as acceptable business practices o Help salespeople to inform others that they intend to conduct business in an ethical way o Can be an effective internal control of behaviour o Generate greater drive and effectiveness in employees o Allow a company to attract high caliber people more easily o Help salespeople avoid confusion in determining what is ethical o Pages 47, 49 Exhibits 2.6 and 2.7 is an example of a professional salesperson's Code of Ethics

•
Does the behaviour or result achieved comply with…
1.
organizational standards of behaviour as specified in the code of ethics?
2.
professional standards of behaviour as specified in an industry code?
3.
all applicable laws, regulations, or government codes?

How Sales Organizations Can
Support Ethical Practices
• Follow steps provided by the Federal and
Provincial Guidelines
• Establish and enforce ethical codes
• Provide ongoing seminars and training in ethics
• Have and encourage contact with ethics advisors within the organization

Deceptive Practices
Exaggerate
Withhold
Deceive
Hustle
Scam
Bluff
Pushy
Hard Sell
Fast Talking
High Pressure
Illegal Activities
Misuse Company
Assets
Defraud
Con
Non-Customer-Oriented Behaviour

Standards are:
• Personal and subjective
• In many cases people “ justify” their actions
• May be dependent upon selling approach and an organization’s ethical standards and practices.
• Are ethics situational?

• Values congruity is a level of agreement among different people about the values that are important
• Salespeople interact with many different people o Reaching agreement on what is ethical can be a challenging task (i.e., Case How Low will you
Go?)

• Four types of excuses:
– “I was told to do it”
– “Everybody’s doing it”
– “My actions won’t make any difference”
– “It’s not my problem”

• Each party in a sales transaction brings a set of expectations
– Which set of interests does the salesperson choose to satisfy— corporate interests or the customers’ interest?
– How do the values of the salesperson affect these decisions?
– What are the consequences of the various sales alternatives available to the salesperson?

• The role as a boundary spanner requires salespeople to manage multiple relationships both internally and externally
• Salespeople interact with: o Their sales managers o Other marketing personnel o A variety of non-marketing personnel within their organization (internally) o Customers and prospects in the field (externally)
• These different relationships can result in various sources of conflict

Other Significant Influences on The Salesperson
• The Organization
• Work
• The Law
• Economics
• Professionalism
• Technology

1.
Ability to recognize ethical issues and think through consequences
2.
Self confidence to seek others’ points of view
3.
Willingness to make ethical decisions when there’s no obvious solution

Ethical Decision Making Framework
Characteristics of the
Decision-Maker
Ethical
Situation
Decision
Outcomes
Significant Influences