The Hindu Business Line : The soft sales pillow

IN many ways there is nothing called ethical selling at all. All selling is forceful. All selling is goal-oriented and this goal is skewed towards the selling organisation.

By this definition of the term, ethical selling cannot exist at all. The several dimensions of ethical selling are at best theoretical expositions of a concept that just cannot exist in the realm of selling.

Oops! This is a very damaging thing to say. Maybe even a sensational thing to say.

Look at it this way. Salespeople sell using the key tool of pressure selling most of the time. Add to it the dimension that several salespeople sell things they would never themselves buy. Add to it a further dash of the dimension that salespeople sell stuff at prices they know are absolutely zany. Add one more. Salespeople sell more things to people than what people really need to use.

You guessed right. This piece is a wee bit philosophical. A wee bit self-critical, even. It explores the fact that salespeople at times do not get to sleep the sound sleep of sound conscience. Salespeople make a rough bed for themselves then, in their choices of building a career in selling.

Salespeople are tough guys, then. And tough guys make tough beds. They sleep on the hard bed they make for themselves. Salespeople, therefore, tend to get pretty insensitive at times. Insensitive to the fact that much of what they do is actually not leading anywhere in more ways than one.

Let's explore this train of thought dimension by dimension.

Dimension One: All selling is pressure selling. And pressure selling is not ethical at all.

The most ideal form of selling would be the Utopian concept of Pure Competition. It meant a state of competition where everyone was a seller. Everyone was equally a buyer in all possibility. No one offered a product or service that was distinctive. The prices were all the same. All manufacturers, sellers and buyers were located equidistant, even. There was just no artificial control. Everything was ideal. So ideal that the concept was at best a thought. An Utopian thought altogether.

You, I and all of us who live in the real world know this is just plain impossible. The real world is all about too many manufacturers and too many sellers chasing too few buyers out there in the great world marketplace for this and that. This results in pressure. Competitive pressure that forces the salesperson to resort to the use of the tool of pressure selling. Pressure selling that has him building his sales spiel with a wee lie from here and a wee untruth from there. Small little twigs of lies and near lies, bundled together to achieve that very positive feel for the brand on tout.

If you peek at the small lies a salesman uses in isolation, they seem very small. Look at them as a bundle of these as well, and they still look small. Add to this the pressure of the sales tone and tenor, and you have the perfect recipe for the pressure sale.

How often have you been pushed to buy this pressure cooker and that mobile handset by the savvy salesman at your doorstep? How often have you listened to the voice of the salesman behind the counter, touting a perfume here and a leather jacket there?

The salesman is a trained individual. Trained to sell come what may. Closing a sale is a critical point of completion. A point of victory for the salesperson embarking upon the battle of achieving a sale. Yes, many of us say selling is a win-win game that ensures that both sides win. Many of us also know the real truth.

Dimension Two: Salespeople sell things they would never themselves buy.

There are two views here. Salespeople selling premium cars such as a Mercedes Benz or a BMW are possibly not in a position to fork out enough money to buy one for themselves. That's fine.

The other dimension is the tricky one. Salespersons would never be caught using the brand they tout, knowing fully well that the quality is just not tops.

These guys sell, nevertheless. And sell with evangelism. Hollow evangelism, if you may.

Are you one of these? Are you a non-smoker selling a brand of cigarette? A guy with multiple blockages of the arteries selling this cholesterol-rich oil to others? The list is endless. Make your own list and see where you stand.

Dimension Three: Salespeople sell stuff at prices they know are zany.

Now, this is one thing that is real to many a category. The salesperson knows fully well the cost of manufacture, plus cost of patent, plus cost of transportation, plus cost of marketing, plus cost of selling, plus every other cost there is.

He also knows the price at which he sells. He knows the price premium is way off. He still sells with gusto. Every sale he makes is a win!

The premium jogging shoe, that snazzy pair of jeans, the politically correct brand of lipstick, are all categories that remind you of salespersons of this ilk.

Dimension Four: Salespeople sell the un-necessities to people.

Your television company wants to sell three television sets to the affluent Indian home. One for the drawing room, one for the bedroom for private viewing and one for the kitchen so that Shantabai can have her privacy.

Will you participate in this?

Your hair-dryer company wants you to populate a minimum of four hair-dryers in every home. Three washing machines in a single home. Are you a participant of this mega dream of selling the un-necessities to the consumer home?

You work for a telecom company and the goal is to get your subscribers to talk more than usual and necessary. Are you an evangelist in this game?

Check where you stand here. The life and times of a salesperson are tough ones. Very slowly, and with a great degree of subliminal ease, the salesperson is morphing from what he was and what he should be to what he is.

Life has changed. There is very little of the clean and green left here anymore.

As I irritate your conscience with this thought, let's not get into a game of justification on this. This debate is closed. True conscience lives in very little of our selling lives. If you live and thrive in a category that has it, think yourself lucky. You sleep on a very soft pillow in a very soft bed.

(The writer is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.)

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Discovery's India

The soft sales pillow

Unwept. Unhonoured. Unsung

Bath and beyond

INS President

Retail: The next big thing?

Digjam's comeback bid

A lingo lifeboat to get your message across