stop selling your product, and start selling your vision.

I love sales vision. As a freelancer, consultant, need to influence others to buy into my ideas at work, I hope this inspires me to think about creating my own effective and full-of-integrity sales approach. Sales visions were defined in the previous post and this is a continuation…..

How To Sell With Integrity ( CLICK to view 6 step video) 

There is no doubt that integrity matters in business and sales.  I would like to add love and integrity. Love is universal affection and touching word. All customers are love ones.  To become a successful salesperson, you must be trustworthy, honest, and dependable.  In today’s transparent marketplace, salespeople who will do or say anything to earn a sale are a liability that is simply bad for business. 

To sell in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace they must compromise their integrity.  To them I say one thing:  get out.  The profession of sales has no place for anyone who is not willing to sell with full integrity.  What’s more, if someone feels he must compromise his integrity to get a sale, he clearly has deficient sales skills and needs to be trained on how to sell.  The reality is that selling with integrity is the only way to sell because it will enable you to both sell more and have no regrets about the sales you make.

How can you consistently sell with integrity?  The key to keeping your integrity is to understand how it can be lost.  Rarely does this happen in a single poor decision?  Rather, integrity slips away slowly, one small compromise at a time.  However, this does not have to be the case.  Here are three strategies that will guide you in selling with integrity.

Integrity means following your moral or ethical convictions and doing the right thing in all circumstances, even if no one is watching you. Having integrity means you are true to yourself and would do nothing that demeans or dishonors you.

Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. Integrity can stand in opposition to hypocrisy. Integrity is STEP 4...other three steps are below...

1.  Create A Don’t List

The best way to sell with integrity is to actively commit to it.  Think through and decide what you will and won’t do to get a sale.  This is important because without a firm commitment to refrain from unethical behavior when faced with a questionable, yet financially lucrative opportunity, you will be more likely to yield to temptation.   Although, if you have already made a commitment regarding what you will do and will not do, then all you must do is live out that commitment, which research shows increases the likelihood you will.

Creating a don’t list involves thinking through and writing out the actions you will not engage in regardless of the circumstances or consequences.  For example, one sales person’s don’t list may include:

• I will not lie
• I will not exaggerate or distort the truth in any way
• I will not cover up a mistake, but will own it and make it right
• I will not steal time from my employer
• I will not compromise what I believe to be right, regardless of the circumstances

The key is to decide what should be on your don’t list and then document it.  It is also recommended that you re-read it periodically to keep it fresh and at the forefront of your mind.  These pre-loaded decisions will help you fend off the temptation to compromise your integrity. 

2.  Be Authentic

Buyers are savvy and when salespeople pretend to be someone they aren’t, buyers will pick up on the lack of genuineness and this will breed feelings of distrust.  In contrast, there is something refreshing about blunt authenticity.  It naturally attracts people.  So I would encourage you to resolve to always be you.

3.  Have

Congruency Between Your Words and Behaviors

One of the core ways that a lack of integrity is made evident is when a person’s words don’t match their behaviors.  When I think about this, I remember the Church Ladies.  Who were the church ladies?  Many years ago, when I was in high school I was a manager of the McDonalds restaurant in my town.  Every weekday at approximately 10 am a group of ladies would come into McDonald's.  They had just come from Mass and were deemed, “church ladies” by my staff.  Due to their extremely rude behavior, these ladies were disliked by everyone who worked at McDonald's.  The cold reality was that though they may have gone to church nearly every day of the week, no one from McDonald's would have ever gone with them.  Why?  Because their behaviors did not match what they said they believed in kindness and treating others with respect. 

Selling integrity means both following through with what you say and making sure your claims about your product or service are accurate.  In essence, it’s making sure that you live out your words.  This is not just the right thing to do, but it has also been proven to significantly boost revenue.  One study found that those companies who had managers who followed through on their promises and lived out the values they preached were more profitable than companies who had managers lacking in integrity.^[3]  The study also identified that this, more than any other management behavior that was measured, had the most significant impact on company profitability. 

What is Success?

How do you define success in sales?  For me, success is not just measured by how much you sell, but also by how you sell.  That’s the thing about integrity, it’s not something that you can claim; you must demonstrate it to others every day.  By deploying the three strategies that I’ve shared you can improve the likelihood that you will exhibit integrity when you sell.  Because when it’s all said and done, integrity is one of those things that is remembered.  I can think of no higher compliment for a sales professional than for others to say that you sell a lot and sell with integrity. 

Above all, having a clear company vision helps to build your brand.

It serves as a beacon that attracts like-minded employees and customers to you. Employees who share the same zeal will work for you with their blood and sweat; while customers who believe what you believe will always stand by your brand.

Your vision will help inspire you, your employees, and your customers. That’s how the greatest brands are built.

So stop selling your product, and start selling your vision.

The next post- selling with insight.... stay tuned...and continue reading to have more in-depth know-how on sales...