Responsible Selling

On the run this morning but just a wanted to put together a few quick thoughts to chew over....

I read one of those consumer advice columns in the paper this morning. Long story short, it concerned someone who was convinced to pay $5000 over sticker price for a car. It was an older person's first new car ever and the saleperson convinced the buyer that the car was special enough to warrant the higher cost. Later, the buyer, shopping elsewhere realizes that it's not so.

We hear alot about ethics in business, but let's take a look at ethics in selling. Do we gouge because we can? If we are managers do we encourage this practice, either overtly or covertly? How can we expect to attract truly talented people to selling while this type of selling persists? How wants to be in a profession where businesses wink at this type of behavior?

One of the things we need to do in the sales profession is to weed out this type of person. We also need to make sure that we have not inadvertantly set up compensation packages that reward this type of behavior.

Some of the mortage mess can also be blamed on this type of situation... people who should never have been approved getting mortages that created a house of cards. A slight breeze in the economy and the whole thing blows over.