If you order your custom term paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on ethical salespeople. What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality ethical salespeople paper right on time.
Our staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in ethical salespeople, therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your ethical salespeople paper at affordable prices!
DO ETHICAL SALESPEOPLE FINISH LAST?
Why is it important?
The sales profession is perhaps associated with questions about ethics more than any other profession. This stems from the high-pressure selling techniques used to increase profit and promote sales. Today, the salesperson is motivated by customer satisfaction, repeat business and referrals which are all definite deterrents to unethical tactics.
Envision this. It is December 1, 00, and you have just graduated from New York State University with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration. You go out with your friends to a club and the whole city of Manhattan is there. You are so happy and relived that you become intoxicated from having too many long island ice teas. You become so inebriated that you forget your common sense and sleep with someone you don't know. Four weeks later you are offered a job as a Product Manager for a fortune 500 company like Microsoft. Within your first week there you are scheduled to hear a demo from a Marketing Advertising company called Mark INC, a company that Microsoft is considering hiring to take care of all its marketing and advertising needs. After hearing the demo from the salespeople at Mark, Inc you decide you like it and decide that it is a good move for Microsoft to make. So, you talk with the salespeople about the benefits of their product, what they can do for Microsoft, and price. The salespeople quote you an excessively high price for the particular service you want, so you question them and try to get a concession. In the middle of the negotiation, all of the salespeople from Mark Inc tell you that if you do not take Mark INC's service at that high price they will tell your boss that they saw you drunk and know that you slept with his/her wife/husband. What would you do?
This story is just one of the many stories concerning ethics and salespeople. It is important not only because it affects customers, but it affects salespeople as well. Salespeople currently have stereotype characteristics such as being liars, to pushy, charging and excessively high amount of money for products and service, and being unethical. If these trends continue, sales people will continue to be seen as unethical and consumers will dread doing business with them.
What is ethics?
To answer this question we have to define the definition of selling. According to the Direct Selling Association, (DSA) selling is defined as a process by which one person guides other people's behavior along a path in a desired direction, culminating in the purchase of a product or service. It is not a manipulative process; it is used to help customers solve their problem by providing a product or service that satisfies their wants or needs. Ethics is a code of moral principles and values that govern the behaviors of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong.
According to the National Association of Sales Professionals, Salespeople have a standard of professional and ethical conduct that they should go by. It includes acting with the highest degree of professionalism ethics and integrity, representing the facts of the benefits of the services or products that you sell fairly, keeping confidential information about your customers confidential, and disclosing potential conflicts of interest to all parties before they become a problem. It also states that salespeople have a responsibility to their customers, acting in their customer's best interest, presenting products and services that satisfy customer needs. Salespeople have a responsibility to their employers, representing the company in a professional manner and remaining loyal. A responsibility to the public that involves serving a model of good citizenship, legal responsibility by observing laws that affect the products and services; and a responsibility to self by always growing in knowledge and striving for a balance in the personal and professional life.
What influences ethical behavior?
According to the article "Issue of Ethics Often Faces Professional Sales People?a sales person can be pre-conventional, conventional or principled. A pre-conventional salesperson acts in their best interest and follows rules to avoid punishment. However, they will break moral or legal laws. A conventional salesperson conforms to expectations of others and is not likely to break legal or moral laws. Principled salespeople live by an internal set of morals, values and ethics. These are likely to be upheld regardless of punishments of majority opinion.
Salespeople may disregard ethics because of company and/or customer goals; they wish or need to increase sales and profits. They may disregard ethic because of personal goals and beliefs; personal standards, family ethics, or the desire for more income and promotion. Salespeople may have a number of reasons to justify their behavior like "everybody else is doing it? They may say it necessary to justify the means, or it is not going to hurt anyone; I deserve it; its legal, or no one will know.
Ethics with Employers
Not only does unethical behavior effect sales people and customers, it affects employers to. Unethical salespeople may misuse company asses by buying groceries with a company credit card. They may begin moonlighting, which is working more than one job with the belief that it would lead to more success. According to the article, "Are you Burning more than midnight oil, moonlighting is a workaholic mentality that can destroy your life on and off the job. Cheating is another attribute that would cause employers to be treaded unethically.
Ethics with Customers
Things that would cause customers to be treated unethically would be bribes, misrepresentation, price discrimination ?selling the same quality of product at different prices, selling unnecessary products and sexual harassment. Making an exaggerated claims to counter exaggerated claims of a competitor; offering a customer a unauthorized gift in return for their business; concealing information from a customer to get their business and meet sales goals, putting non related expenses on your expense account, and giving confidential information about one customer to the other to make a sale are all examples of unethical procedures.
If a salesperson really feels like they want to give a gift to their customers they should first make sure it is in their company policy to give a gift; they should not give it before the sale is made, they should keep the gift simple and insignificant so it can't be construed as a bribe.
Rewarding unethical behavior
Despite the negative attributes associated with unethical behavior, many salespeople are being rewarded for unethical behavior as long as the results increase sales. James DeConnick and William Lewis are professors at the University of Dayton's School of Business. They conducted a study to show how sales managers react to unethical behavior. 80% of sales mangers believed that overstating plant capacity to increase sales was wrong when it resulted in lost sells for the company. However, only 45% believed it was wrong when it increased sales. This study shows that most of the time when salespeople commit unethical behavior that results in positive results for the company the behavior is overlooked.
How do you manage and control ethics?
According to Dr. DeConnick, in order to better manage and control the use of unethical practices you need to promote ethical selling practices without compromising overall sales performance. There also needs to be a person at the top who is a leader and exemplifies good ethic practices. Establishing a written code of ethics is also useful because it will be stated in the employee hand book you cannot do this or do that without being punished. Encouraging whistle blowers is also a good way to put a handle on unethical behaviors. In a Sears employee handbook, they provide employees with a few questions to help them determine if what they are going to do is ethical. According to Sears, you can keep from making ethical mistakes by asking yourself a couple questions before acting. Ask yourself is it legal? If it is not legal, then it probably is not ethical. Ask yourself, if it is consistent with company beliefs and values? Is it appropriate? Is it okay for others to know about this? Is it going to make me feel bad? Would I want someone else to act this way? And, how would I explain my actions to someone else? If you are asked to act unethically with in the workplace you have to choices, you can do it or not do it. If you do it you are probably ignoring your own values and moral judgment and amore like to feel guilty and lose self respect. If you don't do it you can voice opposition and try to change the business policy, quit, or be terminated. According to Ron Willingham, publisher of Integrity Selling, a salesperson's ethics and Values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies. If all else fails just remember the golden rule, "treat others as you would like to be treated?
Conclusion
To answer the question asked at the beginning of the paper, the answer is no. No, ethical salespeople do not finish last. In fact, ethical selling decisions based on truth, honesty, integrity, and moral judgments are essential for long term relationships that can only be maintained through mutual respect and trust. Norman Vincent Peale concludes that salespeople who act unethically are blinded by short term rewards achieved thorough cheating and lying. In other words, acting unethically may bring you temporary reward but in the long term you will fail. In my opinion, I think that anyone who is a salesperson has a hard job. They deal with rejection, and trying to change or persuade people to use their product or service. It is almost like if you have to act unethically just to survive. I view most salespeople as predators coming to rob you blind of all your life savings which is a stereotype that has been formed by negative opinions and facts from friends and acquaintances. That's why I rarely deal with a salesperson and probably never will for the rest of my life.
In the Executive Speechwriter news letter, and executive rote "because the customer has a need, salespeople have a job to do. Because the customer has a choice, the salesperson must be the better choice. Because the customer has sensibilities, the salesperson must be considerate. Because the customer has urgency, salespeople must be quick. Because the customer is unique, salespeople must be flexible. Because the customer has high expectations, sales people must excel. Because the customer has influence, salespeople have the hope of more customers. Because of the customer, salespeople exist!?
References
1.Direct Selling Association- Code of Ethics- The Code and Direct Sellers. www.dsa.org
.Eyes on Sales- Are you burning more than the Midnight Oil?. www.eyesonsales.com
.University of Dayton ?Sales Managers Reward Unethical Behavior. www.udayton.edu
4.Issue of ethics often faces professional salespeople by Dr. David Lill. www.nashvillenetlinks.com
5.Case StudySears Auto Centers. www.uncg.edu
Please note that this sample paper on ethical salespeople is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on ethical salespeople, we are here to assist you. Your cheap custom college paper on ethical salespeople will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
Order your authentic assignment from and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!