Sales 101: The Importance of Integrity

During my sales career I have coached and mentored hundreds of new salespeople.  I would always start with Selling 101, tips for how to talk to customers and how to ask effective questions.  One thing I wished I had focused more on is the topic of integrity.  I admire those professionals I have worked with who will go to any length to take care of their customers, who never stop thinking of them, even long after the sale. This isn't just professionalism, this is integrity and it goes hand-in-hand with a service mindset. 

I have stunned colleagues in the past by walking away from business.  It seems counter intuitive.  As a salesperson, I personally invest in professional relationships and I genuinely like the people I do business with.  If I do not like someone we will never get to the "doing business" stage because it would never work.  People get into sales for lots of different reasons (usually the prospect of making lots of money) but you only stay in sales if you truly like people.  So when a prospect brings me an opportunity for which my product is not suited, I give it to them straight.

This is not to say that I have never made a mistake or never pursued a less-than-ideal opportunity.  But when that has happened in my career I treated it as a learning opportunity and tried not to repeat the same mistake.  Bad business is costly.  It saps your time and energy and damages your reputation.  Nothing is more disheartening than closing a deal with a customer you know will never be a reference and every customer should be willing to give you a reference once you have proven your value.

Salespeople have a reputation for being phony, for fostering relationships solely for personal gain.  Certainly you pursue relationships with people you hope to do business with, but that does not mean that each interaction is not genuine.  If business is a marathon rather than a sprint, then you cannot skip the first 15 miles.  When I make a new contact my goal is to understand their business and their challenges.  I do not walk into a first meeting with a product to pitch.  How could I?  I have not learned what their needs are yet.  Unless you sell a Swiss Army Knife, you will walk away from as many opportunities as you pursue because your product will not be a good fit for every customer.  Even better, you will give your prospect your honest assessment of their situation and recommend the product or company you believe will serve them well.   I do this often and it always creates a deeper and more profound relationship with my prospect; we move from being business acquaintances to being business friends.

If you have not done it lately, pick up the phone today and call a prospect from a deal you lost, a deal that went to a competitor.  Call to find out how things are going.  Do not call looking for problems or fishing for an opportunity, just demonstrate that you are still thinking about their business and their challenges and learn what they did to solve them.  Nothing elevates your mood and sets the tone for your day like doing the right thing.