Ethical Selling

For most of us, knowing the difference between right and wrong is pretty clear, but sometimes doing the right thing is hard to do. Or, let’s say we are challenged to make the right choices.

Our government helps us out with our decision making process about right and wrong by making laws that specifically tell us what is right and what is wrong. It is illegal to shoplift. It is a legal requirement to properly label the ingredients on food products. While there is an occasional debate about the meaning of laws, we generally understand what is acceptable and what is not. Conveniently, these laws are enforced.

Ethical behavior is a slightly different matter, since ethics are established and maintained by the culture and they are not always written down or specifically communicated. If you find a wallet at a gas station that has $100 cash in it, the ethical thing to do is to contact the owner and return the wallet with the cash. If you go through the checkout line at a department store and the “new” cashier gives you back too much change, the ethical choice is to tell the cashier about the error. The challenge with ethics is that you are in charge of managing your own code of ethics.

Sales people deal with ethical challenges all the time. Maybe you have faced issues like these:

- Should I tell the customer about my product’s quality problems?
- My customer’s purchase order had the wrong price on the order (it was higher than what you quoted). Should I tell them?
- My expense account is to be used for selling expenses only, but how would my company know the difference between a personal expense and a customer expense?
- Your product was not made to the customer’s specification, but was shipped anyway. Do you tell them or do hope that they don’t notice?

Your own code of ethics helps make the little decisions easier along with the big ones. When you always tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything; it is easier this way. When you do the ethical thing, you have little regret or remorse about your choices.

So, what does a sales person’s code of ethics look like? Here are a few ideas:

- Always tell the truth.
- Don’t lie through omission; tell the whole story including the bad parts.
- Always do what you promise; if you can, deliver more than what you promise.
- When you fail to deliver on a commitment, tell the customer immediately. Don’t wait for them to find out.- When in doubt about a choice, seek advice from a mentor (I.E. someone you admire and is ethical).
- Put your promises in writing to hold yourself accountable; this will also document your good behavior when you deliver what you promised.
- Treat your customer like you would like to be treated.

Do the right thing.

John Bradley Jackson brings street-savvy sales and marketing experience from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. His resume also includes entrepreneur, angel investor, corporate trainer, philanthropist, and consultant. His book is called “First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing”.

Check out his website at: http://www.firstbestordifferent.com or his blog at http://www.firstbestordifferent.com/blog

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Bradley_Jackson

Insurance Sales Success: Do You Have What it Takes to Join the Million Dollar Round Table?

The million dollar round table represents the pinnacle of insurance sales success that most agents can only hope to aspire to. You know that hope isn’t a plan. You also know that the market place today is a different place than it was when many of the old masters earned their seats. So how do you obtain this coveted position for yourself in today’s market place?

If you are just another agent in the sea of screaming agents then you don’t have a reason for being in the market place, and you don’t hold much of a chance of ever enjoying superior insurance sales success. Think about it. Any time any small business tries to exist as a carbon copy also ran of another business the likelihood of their continued existence is pretty slim. That means that you have to establish your own uniqueness in your market place.

You need a fail-safe sales process that when consistently followed virtually guarantees your insurance sales success. The sales presentations that you’ve been trained to use by your company isn’t what you need. A sales presentation only serves to disengage your potential clients and put them on the defensive rather than moving them closer to you and what you have to offer. You need to learn how to engage your potential customers in a conversation that helps them to buy from you.

Long-term insurance sales success is ensured through a solid referral system that consistently brings new referral sources into your business. If you want to be referred you have to be referable. You gain referability starting with your fail-safe sales process followed up by your delivery in combination with knowing how to help people to refer you.

You must earn loyal customers. You earn loyal customers by exceeding their expectations. Loyal customers choose to do business with you over the other options out there because of the relationship that you have established with them. Loyal customers won’t leave you just because their cousin’s daughter just started in the business and they want to help her out.

Long-term insurance sales success can be yours when you plan to make that happen from the start. Your plan should include your unique position in the market place, your fail-safe sales process, your earned referability, and your earned customer loyalty. When you have all of these plans in place and running smoothly you are well on your way to the million dollar round table.

Would you like to learn more about your sales skills? Try this Sales Skills Analysis and find out where your opportunities for improvement are.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cheryl_Clausen