Every month I receive a variety of questions from salespeople and their managers. These come from a variety of sources - my live seminars, the monthly phone seminars, questions that are sent into my newsletter, and issues that arise in the course of my consulting work. Out of all of these, I select those that I think have the most universal application, and respond to them here.
My company wants me to sell a product that I do not believe is ready. I don't believe it does what they claim it will do. I'm afraid that if I promote it, I'll lose the trust of my customers. Have you ever encountered a situation like this? Any recommendations?
I lived through almost exactly the same situation. In my case, the product was a medical device that didn't do what the company said it would do. Not only were we expected to sell it, we were given quotas and told that our jobs depended on our performance. It bordered on a threat.
So, to put it in perspective, I was being asked (more accurately I was being told) to do something that I felt was unethical. I suppose there are several things I could have done:
- Refused to sell it, and let the company know exactly why, thus putting my job in jeopardy.
- Sold it, knowing that I would be violating my customer's trust.
- Said that I would sell it, but then give only half-hearted efforts so that I actually did not sell any.
- Attempt to sell it, but share with my customer my reservations about the product.
- Quit.
I believe that when you are faced with an ethical dilemma like this, in which your company is asking or directing you to do something which violates your ethical standards, these are your options. There may be others that arise out of the specifics of your situation, but certainly you have at least these five options.
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The first step towards resolving this is to clearly identify your options. Now that you have done that, the real question is one that I can't answer for you. It has to do with how sensitive your conscience is, and to how refined your sense of ethics.
I my case, I decided that I could not do option number two, because I would be ruining my reputation. I believe that my reputation is, as Proverbs says: "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold"( Proverbs 22:1) So, I decided option two was not for me.
I also ruled out option four. To do that would be to detract from my customer's faith and trust in my company. As a loyal employee, I don't believe in that, either. I believe that I should do whatever I can to support and build up my company, even if I don't always agree with them. To share some of my concerns would be to make my company look bad, and I didn't want to do that.
Option three seemed like a wimpy option, and deceptive. So, I eliminated that. Which lead me to either selling it, confronting the company with my position, or quitting. I chose option one: To not sell it, and share my position with the company. I was fully aware of the possible consequences of my actions. Even though I loved the job, I was ready to leave it.
That's where the plot thickened. When I shared my position with my manager, he said words to the effect that he was leaving in the next month or two and that there would be several months without any manager in the territory. And, by then, the whole issue would have been resolved. So, don't worry about it.
At that point, I decided that I had fulfilled my responsibility and had informed my manager of my position. What he did with it was his choice. I felt no need to belabor the point by going to his boss. So, I did what he told me to do. I didn't sell it. And I didn't worry about it. And the situation did resolve itself in a few months.
I'm not sure how instructive that is for you. Since that was the route that I took, it's the one that I advocate for you. However, I've been around enough to know to that individual circumstances can make a big difference.
My ultimate advice is to make sure that your conscience is at ease with what ever you decide. Don't make a decision that will result in turmoil and sleepless nights.
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If you have any comments or questions, email them to me. I do, of course, reserve the right to edit.
Here are a few articles by Dave
that you might be interested in reading:
- The Impenetrable Account... How do you sell to an account that is in the hands of a competitor? It's a great question, reflecting one of the most perplexing and frustrating situations every sales person faces. In this article Dave expalins how to get an account away from your competition.... {Read More}
- Developing Account Strategies... Our objective is to equip you with an understanding of the principles and processes you'll need in order to develop effective account strategies. First, let's define our terms. Strategy means a series of steps designed to bring your prospect or customer from where they are now to where you want them to be. It's the long-term view. Realistically, it's a planned series of sales calls in which each sales call has a distinctive set of purposes, a distinctive piece of education, a person or set of people to speak with, and a distinctive agreement that you'd like to attain. The purpose, the timing, the organization, and the sequence of that series of sales calls is the strategy. It's the long-term perspective, the big picture, of what you want to do and how you want to do it.....[ {Read More}
There are also many other action-packed articles for sales professionals that offer how-to solutions to every day sales problems that you can read online at www.davekahle.com/article.htm.
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