Professional Selling: Humber - The Business School Steve Bang

Professional Selling
Humber – The Business School

Steve Bang
Chapter 3
Ethics: The Foundation for Relationships that Create Value
Selling Today – Chapter 3
Ethics – The Foundation of Relationships
Emotional Intelligence
The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and
those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for
managing emotions effectively in ourselves and our
relationships.
 Excellent predictor of success
 Helps with building new relationships
 Helps sustain existing relationships

Ethics – The Foundation of Relationships
Relationships Add Value

 Professional responsibility to create as much value
for customers as possible

 Exhibit more energy
 Strong Work Ethic
 Eager to ask Customers for Decisions
 Empathizers – ability to imagine themselves in
someone else’s position and understand what that

person is feeling
 Honest, accountable, concerned about the
customer’s welfare
Ethics: The Foundation for Relationships
Business Ethics: Principles and standards that

guide behavior in the world of business.
Churning: A practice by which agents pressure

customers to use built-up cash value in existing
insurance policies to by a new more expensive one.
“In some cases the motivation to engage in unethical

sales practices may increase when companies
provide incentive structures to entice salespeople
to go over the line”
Factors Influencing the Ethics of Salespeople

1. Top Management as a Role Model – The organization’s
moral tone, as established by management personnel,
is the most important single determinant of employee
ethics.
2. Company Policies and Practices – Developing policy
statements forces a firm to “take a stand” on various
business practices (often referred to as a code of
business conduct)
3. The Sales Manager – The Salesperson’s actions often
mirror the Sales Manager’s behaviors and expectations
Company Policies Relating to:

1. Sharing Confidential Information
2. Reciprocity – mutual exchange of benefits
3. Bribery – Cash payments or large gifts
4. Gift Giving – advertising novelties, planning calendars
or meals are usually OK
5. Entertainment of Customers – Could be considered
bribery depending on nature of entertaining
6. Business Defamation – Slander (verbal), Libel (written),
Product Disparagement (false or deceptive product
comparisons)
7. Use of Internet – E-mail abuse is a modern day problem
Ethics Becoming Front and Centre

 Companies asking vendors to outline their ethical
practices
 Appointing a top level executive to be responsible
for ethics, business development and compliance

 Most companies have a “Whistle Blower” policy
allowing employees to be able to report

anonymously and confidentially
 Ongoing access to vendor’s ethics programs to
monitor effectiveness
 Ethics training for All employees
Values: Deep personal beliefs and preferences that

influence your behavior.
 Serve as foundations for our attitudes which serve as
foundations for our behavior

 A salesperson’s ethics and values often contribute more
to sales success than techniques and strategies

When an employer’s instructions as improper you can:
1. Ignore your values – guilt and loss of self respect
2. Voice opposition – attempt to influence decisions
3. Refuse to compromise – possibly loose your job

Laws, Contracts and Agreements
Laws – obligations imposed by government and

usually take the form of statutes (example:
“Cooling-off laws” give the customer the
opportunity to re-consider)
Contract – promise or promises that the courts will

enforce. These can be oral or written (example:
“non-compete clause” prohibits salespeople from
joining a competing firm for a year after they leave)
Ethics Beyond the Law

“The only way you can build a loyal and growing client
base is to demonstrate that you have the customer’s
own best interest at heart.”
Guidelines for a Personal Code of Ethics
1. Personal selling must be viewed as an exchange of
value
2. Relationship comes first, task second
3. Be honest with yourself and others
Trust – “Trust is quickly lost and slowly won.”

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Professional Selling

Humber – The Business School

 Helps with building new relationships

 Helps sustain existing relationships

Relationships Add Value

for customers as possible

 Strong Work Ethic

 Eager to ask Customers for Decisions

 Empathizers – ability to imagine themselves in

someone else’s position and understand what that

Business Ethics: Principles and standards that

Churning: A practice by which agents pressure

“In some cases the motivation to engage in unethical

Factors Influencing the Ethics of Salespeople

Company Policies Relating to:

Ethics Becoming Front and Centre

for ethics, business development and compliance

allowing employees to be able to report

Values: Deep personal beliefs and preferences that

foundations for our behavior

to sales success than techniques and strategies

2. Voice opposition – attempt to influence decisions

3. Refuse to compromise – possibly loose your job

Laws, Contracts and Agreements

Laws – obligations imposed by government and

Contract – promise or promises that the courts will

Ethics Beyond the Law

3. Be honest with yourself and others

Trust – “Trust is quickly lost and slowly won.”

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