Most salespeople believe they are ethical and committed to customer success. Our mantra: \u201cTreat customers like you would like to be treated.\u201d If we could, we\u2019d brush our teeth thrice daily with these words.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, companies worshipping at the Maximize Shareholder Value<\/em> altar have trashed and trampled this ideal. Wells Fargo, VW, and Purdue Pharma come to mind. They\u2019re not alone. If ex-CEO\u2019s John Stumpf (Wells), Martin Winterkorn (VW), and Richard Sackler (Purdue) rightfully earned anything, it\u2019s widespread scorn. For salespeople, this is vindicating. Too often, CXO\u2019s sow stakeholder harm from headquarters, while the frontline sales force does the dirty work out in the field. Expectedly, the salesperson is the first target for customer rage.<\/p>\n The first car dealership in the US<\/a> opened in 1898. Were early car sales reps \u201csleazy\u201d and \u201caggressive\u201d? Or did they become that way through circumstance? Nobody today wags a shaming finger at former industry executives whose sales strategies created that ugly archetype. The result of saturating territories with dealerships and forcing the owners to accept quotas of slow-selling vehicles to get the hot selling ones. When people opine cruddy car buying experiences, look no further than the CXO\u2019s of the major auto manufacturers as the visionary architects for everything wrong in buyer-seller engagement. And like a stain that won\u2019t wash out, it\u2019s lasted into 2020.<\/p>\n Stereotyping has a benefit, however. Casting salespeople in any industry as slick<\/em> and manipulative<\/em> means that our minds don\u2019t get encumbered processing deeper understanding. In fact, the putative pushy sales rep is more an artifact of his environment, and less a reflection on his personal character. Contrary to what many believe, greedy ostentatious people are not inherently drawn to the sales profession. Nor do they flock to car selling in particular. Show me a manipulative, aggressive, or unethical sales behavior, and I\u2019ll show you a training program that encouraged it, a pay plan that motivated it, a manager that demanded it, and a company that accepted it. Unless we enjoy hearing others rant about “slimy” salespeople, we must stop blaming the victim, and fix what truly needs fixing.<\/p>\n Importantly, not every revenue scandal involves the sales force. Enron\u2019s scheme began in the CFO\u2019s office. VW\u2019s emissions-cheating scheme was hatched deep in the bowels of its engineering department. Turing Pharmaceutical\u2019s predatory price gouging was the brainchild of its profit-obsessed CEO, Martin Shkreli. In 2018, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n But all too frequently, we find Sales close to the epicenter of ethical havoc, the linchpin in the sharp-fanged mechanism for repeatable, scalable deceit. That wouldn\u2019t happen if the sales force weren\u2019t attractive for exploitation. <\/p>\n Five key reasons:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. The sales force holds a unique position of trust<\/strong> with a company\u2019s customers. The easiest way to begin a scam is to usurp existing trust.<\/p>\n 2. Most sales forces have variable compensation based on revenue attainment.<\/strong> Pay-for-performance significantly influences behavior.<\/p>\n 3. Draconian penalties for under-performance.<\/strong> In many organizations, quota shortfalls can result in termination.<\/p>\n 4. Sales culture stifles dissent, and champions conformity.<\/strong> Those who voice ethical concerns are often maligned as \u201cwhiners\u201d or \u201cnot team players.\u201d <\/p>\n 5. Sales roles have become de-skilled through Artificial Intelligence<\/strong>, making salespeople easier to replace.<\/p>\n Among the recent cases where the sales force was caught in a customer scandal: <\/p>\n AmEx Staff Misled Small-Business Owners to Boost Card Sign-Ups<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n High-flying Medical Firm, a Help to Wounded Veterans, Falls to Earth<\/em><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n American Express Gave Small Businesses One Rate, then Secretly Raised it<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n