Written by Ari Greenbaum, co-founder of conXpros
Integrity /inˈteɡrədē/
noun
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
There is no doubt that integrity matters, especially in business and sales. Truly successful sales people have high integrity and are trustworthy, honest and dependable. In 2019, we live in a highly transparent world. The days of sales people that will say or do anything to get the deal are ancient history. Those representing your company that fail to operate with high levels of integrity are simply bad for business.
Sales people have long been regarded as the lowest of professions when ranked for trustworthiness. This stigma on the profession of selling makes it all the more important to buck the image and operate with complete integrity. This will help you to stick out like a sore thumb (in a positive way) when being compared to the rest of the bunch. Who would you rather trust to do business with, someone that defines trustworthy, honesty and integrity? Or someone that helps further the “sleazy sales person” image? This is further compounded when you are in the profession of home services & home improvement sales, where the customer is hiring you to enter and perform work in their most sacred place…their home!
I have met many people that feel that there is nothing wrong with “toeing the line” or even crossing it when it comes to getting deals closed in today’s uber competitive market. My advice, find a new profession! The great profession of sales has no place for anyone who is not willing to sell with complete integrity. If someone feels they must compromise their integrity to get a sale, they clearly have deficient sales skills and needs to be trained how to sell. By selling with integrity, you will make more sales, but more importantly good sales you can feel good about.
How can you sell with integrity (or train others to do so) consistently? You can use these strategies to ensure you are selling the right & only way.
Make a “I will never” list:
The first step is to make a real commitment to selling with integrity. Just like when setting goals, one must write the goal down and commit to a plan of action, the same is true here. Creating a “I will never list” requires thinking through and writing out the actions you will not engage in, no matter what. For example, your list may include:
- I will never lie
- I will never exaggerate or distort the truth in any way
- I will never cover up a mistake, rather take ownership and correct it
- I will never go against what I believe to be right, regardless of what I may gain from it
The key is to create your list, write it down and commit to it.
Be Yourself:
Often sales people mimic or copy what they hear others who they view as successful do. Of course, it is great to learn from positive qualities and characteristics of successful people, but attempting to imitate rarely will result in success. The customer will see right through the “act” and it will hurt your credibility and their ability to trust you. You must be yourself. When you are lying about who you are, it is impossible to operate with honesty integrity. You can check out my article from July 2019 titled “We Want You”for more clarity on what it means to be yourself in sales.
Being yourself goes beyond just being “real”. Often, sales people will lie or embellish about themselves; info about their family, personal likes, political opinions, where they are from, etc. This is done in effort to gain favor with the prospect and hopefully create a connection. The majority of the time, people see right through this and are like human BS detectors. They can sense the lack of genuineness and this will hurt the level of trust they have for you. Just be yourself, and more people will be naturally attracted to YOU.
Do what you say you are going to do:
There is no better way to prove to someone that you lack honesty and integrity than to have your actions contradict your words. This is the very definition of integrity to me: Your actions consistent with your words, values, and principles. Essentially walking the walk, not just talking the talk. This is the glue that binds you to the customer. There are many people in the world that talk a good game, but rarely are there those that do exactly what they say.
I have worked with and managed many people throughout my life. There are many of those in these groupings that I may have “rubbed the wrong way” or not “meshed” with. However, there has never been anyone that could say I did not do exactly what I said I would do. This trait has helped me immensely in business, in sales and in life. There is no greater way to stand out from the crowd.
If you truly want to achieve the success in sales you dream of, take the actions to ensure that you are operating with honesty & integrity. Honesty and integrity are at the core of every successful sales person. Make yourself someone that the customer can trust and be confident in doing business with. Make yourself successful!