True story (with fictional names) about ethics in sales.
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Gianni is a young shop boy.
After some time, he decides to make a dream come true: he creates his own business, borrowing money from his parents.
Luca and Marco, the sellers of two competing companies, show up to sell him the equipment he needs.
Luca offers Gianni a product that he knows Gianni can afford to pay for.
Marco pushes to sell Gianni a product that is much more expensive than he can afford to pay.
Marco makes a promise to Gianni: I’ll get you some work, so you can start the business and repay the monthly lease fees.
Curious, Gianni buys the machines from Marco.
Luca returns to his company without order, and his bosses yells at him.
Marco returns to his company with the order and is promoted.
Months pass.
Marco doesn’t keep his promise to get Gianni some work.
Gianni cannot honour the payment of fees.
A year or two goes by. The initial enthusiasm becomes a daily agony.
In the end, the machinery is removed due to insolvency.
And Gianni is forced to close down the company, leaving his parents in poverty.
*****
Questions:
- Is it fair to sell even though I know I’m exposing the customer to a very serious risk?
- Who is more responsible in these cases: the salesman, or the company that requires him to achieve the sales targets?
- Is it because of stories like this that sellers are so badly behaved?
Waiting for comments, I anticipate our solution.
That doesn’t rely on ethical values, but on pragmatism:
In order not to induce Marco into temptation, we must always have many more sales cycles than the necessary to reach the target.
TheSystem, the sales & marketing automation system, does just that: it organises the entire sales chain, from product positioning to sales, so as to constantly generate new sales cycles.
So, you can focus only on those that are healthy for both: the salesman and the customer.
To see how it works and how to equip your company with this machine, click here “
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