In our new program that teaches field technical and consulting resources how to spot and pass on opportunities, we poll attendees prior to the course, to get general feedback on their perception of “sales”.
The results we obtain are now becoming consistent – the top 2 pieces of feedback we receive on how the services folk view the sales function provide comments along the lines of:
“acting in the sales person’s best interest – not that of the customer”.
So – is this all fact or fiction? Do sales people actually lie on sales calls? If so – why? And “does it work”?!!!
Do salespeople lie on calls?
Research summarised in an article just released entitled Ethical Salesperson Behavior in Sales Relationships (Hansen J D & Riggle R J, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. XXIX, no. 2 (spring 2009) reveals:
- sales managers report that 49% of their sales people have lied on a sales call, 34% have made unrealistic promises, and 22% have sold products the customer did not need (Whatever It Takes, Michele Marchetti, Sales & Management Marketing Management 149 (13) 28-36)
- 50% of sales and marketing executives believe that salespeople have lied on sales calls and that 74% believe their salespeople are encouraged to lie in the aggressive pursuit of sales goals (To Tell the Truth, Erin Strout, Sales & Marketing Management 154 (7) 40-47)
Why do salespeople lie on calls?
The article gives the following reasons as to why this behaviour occurs:
- as the salesperson sits between the buying and selling organisations, ethical conflicts occur as they attempt to balance the interests of both parties (research source here)
- as they often work in isolation ethical constraints are lowered – the employing organisation is less able to regularly reinforce the required behaviour (research source here)
- sales people are under enormous pressure to achieve targets, and they’re only human (research source here)
- sales managers will often overlook poor ethical behaviour if sales success is achieved (research source here)
- the nature of the negotiations undertaken by salespeople can promote dishonesty and exaggeration (research source here)
So what should we do?
Most of us will agree that – ideally – salespeople should have some sort of “moral code” that convinces them to create “win win” situations ie in a solution selling context the salesperson receives reward because she has identified a problem a customer has, and has removed this problem. The salesperson “wins” because the customer “wins”.
The research, however, clearly says that something is breaking down.
We all know that ethical salespeople are generally more respected by buyers – but does this mean they win more deals?
There is anecdotal evidence that this is the case – for example in his brilliant book The Speed of Trust Stephen M R Covey talks about the “Economics of Trust”, and uses this simple equation
↑ Trust = ↑ Speed ↓ Cost
to explain that, in business situations, high trust increases the speed with which transactions can occur, and greatly reduces the cost of facilitating these transactions. Certainly salespeople benefit by achieving greater “velocity” in their sales funnel.
What is interesting about the original article that sparked this entry, however, is that it offers proof that ethical behaviour on the part of the salesperson actually drives better returns. Ethical sales behaviour positively influences buyer/seller relationships – this leads to greater economic returns particularly in the longer term. Ethical salesperson behaviour (unfortunately!) plays a minimal role in producing immediate economic returns – however an enormous link is proven between ethical behaviour and the buyer providing positive word of mouth referrals. Other research points out that customers gained via some sort of referral remain loyal buyers for longer, and are more profitable than customers gained through other demand generation programs.
We need to point out to salespeople that – whilst it “feels good” to behave ethically – it actually increases sales performance, making their job easier over time.
The implications are huge, and in coming articles I want to provide a framework that can be pursued to improve sales performance by displaying ethical behaviour – by building trust – through the sales process. Many managerial elements come into play – training, incentives, sales management behaviour, sales process, how to market trust etc.
I’d value hearing from you about any specific programs you might have in your organisation designed primarily to improve sales performance by actively building trust throughout the sales process.
