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…..
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...
