Are all salespeople crooks?
Salespeople too often suffer from a negative image: liars, smooth talkers, greedy, willing to do anything to make a sale, and this is true in most countries around the world. This is the image portrayed, for example, by Michael Scott in the TV series The Office, who is willing to get a partner drunk to push him into signing a sales contract. This stereotype seems to be almost universal.
Christophe Fournier, University of Montpellier
Peggy / Pixabay, CC BY-SA
Some will say "business is business," that's the law of business, and it's up to consumers to be vigilant. At a time when concerns about sustainable development are growing, when there is increasing talk of corporate social responsibility, and when the benefits of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) assessments are being touted, it seems legitimate to ask the question: is it possible to have an ethics of sales, and if so, why and how?
Beyond moral considerations, there is a certain consensus in scientific literature indicating that ethical business practices have always proven to be more profitable than those that are not. This is especially true when taking a long-term view and therefore focusing on customer relationship management.
Our work shows a beneficial effect from a workforce perspective: the more ethical a company is, the more incentive high-performing salespeople have to stay. In other words, a good ethical climate is an excellent way to limit turnover and retain the best employees. Given the turnover rates that can exist in sales and the difficulties of recruiting in this sector, it seems that investing in a certain ethical approach is a win-win situation for a company.
Once alone, the temptation is great.
We surveyed 132 French sales representatives from a variety of companies to examine the oft-studied relationship between sales performance and turnover. Although some studies fail to find a significant relationship between these two variables, most conclude that there is a negative relationship: the lower the performance, the higher the turnover.
[Nearly 80,000 readers trust The Conversation newsletter to help them better understand the world's major issues. Subscribe today]
Our findings paint a slightly more complex picture. The relationship between these two variables appears to be moderated by the ethical climate. The more successful salespeople are, the more they tend to want to leave the company if the ethical climate is poor. This is especially true given that their results make them highly employable in the job market and that they are offered attractive opportunities in other companies, whether competitors or not, that have a favorable ethical climate.
The least productive employees, on the other hand, will tend to remain in their current company, as they will be in low demand on the job market. In order to achieve a certain level of performance, they will also be more willing to accept a less ethical working environment.
Once alone, the temptation is great.
How, then, can we create the kind of ethical environment that attracts the brightest employees? Given the unique nature of the profession, this does not seem obvious at first glance.
One of the characteristics of salespeople is that many of them have a dual independence: physical, as many of them are in the field, and above all psychological. Alone with the customer or buyer, they must find solutions, answer questions, and sometimes deal with pressure. It is therefore easy and tempting, in certain situations, to "cut corners" and engage in behavior that could be described as unethical or borderline unethical.
However, several simple tools can easily be implemented to promote a virtuous climate, such as setting appropriate and achievable quotas. It has been clearly proven that the higher these quotas are, the greater the temptation to break the rules.
Beware of incentives
Rather than setting quotas based on "production" and therefore sales, it is better to set quotas based on more qualitative factors, such as customer satisfaction, or assessments of key behaviors to adopt or master during the sales process. From an ethical standpoint, strong control and close supervision with rather subjective indicators is preferable to control that is more focused on results. Beyond that, the challenge is also to maintain and even strengthen customer relationships.
In the same vein, sales competitions and other challenges launched by a large number of companies can also quickly get out of hand. This is especially true if care is not taken to set objectives that are consistent with an ethical vision and the company's strategy.
More broadly, the compensation and incentive package for salespeople is being called into question. Numerous studies show, for example, that from an ethical standpoint, it is always preferable to favor fixed compensation over variable compensation with commissions based primarily on sales.
Guardian and guardrails
It is also important to mention the key role played by leaders, who can be both the initiators and the promoters and guardians of the company's ethical spirit. By setting an example, they will show the way to their employees, who will then be less inclined to venture down the wrong path. Their attention to these issues should begin as early as the recruitment stage.
However, these actions may not be enough. Finally, it is important to mention the relevance for the company of adopting a code or charter of ethics, a key element in fostering a positive climate. A few lines will formalize the main rules of conduct that sales representatives can refer to in case of doubt or questions about certain practices. This formalization of ethics is an important safeguard, not to eliminate all unethical behavior, but at least to limit it.
Of course, it will not be possible to prevent deviant behavior by salespeople entirely, but implementing a few simple measures can be a great help. Sales and ethics are not mutually exclusive.
Christophe Fournier, University Professor, IAE Montpellier, Montpellier Research , Member of the Business Science Institute, President of AUNEGe, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.