Are You a Sleazy Salesperson? You don't have to lie to close the deal.
By Jeff Shore Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
While many salespeople have fought hard to get rid of the "sleazy salesman" stereotype, sadly, sales sleaze still exists.
Exhibit "A".
A "sales expert" on this very site recently posted an article suggesting "12 Shameless Tactics" to get more sales. Of the twelve suggestions, six of them involved lying directly to a prospective customer, including this nugget: "OK, this may be shameless lying. But on the scale of lying it's pretty far down the list."
Really, we're on a "lying scale" now? I would love to see a blog post that explains just where the line is drawn on that scale. I've somehow missed that. Perhaps the worst part of the article is the title: "No Successful Salesperson is Too Proud to Use Any of These 12 Shameless Tactics."
Related: Are Business Ethics at a Low Ebb?
Oh, sorry to disappoint. But I am one of thousands of sales professionals who utilize ethical practices and are still successful. I sold more than 500 homes in my real estate career, and I later led a nationwide sales team that amassed over a billion dollars a year in revenue. Lying was never EVER a part of our curriculum.
Exhibit "B".
Today I watched a blogcast of a "sales expert" in Dallas. The title of the piece: "There's an A** for Every Seat." I'd quote some of the content, but the profound vulgarity would be wildly out-of-place on this site. Suffice it to say that it is language I would expect in a prison yard and not on an educational sales site.
Related: Why Honesty and Integrity Really Do Matter
Exhibit "C".
The awesome confrontation between Grant Cardone and Gary Vaynerhcuk that Will Barron expertly breaks down here.
Related: Six Pillars Of Building Your Integrity
The Showdown.
Who are you? Who do you want to be? How do you define integrity? If we want to succeed in sales on our terms, we must answer these questions.
There are two very different schools of thought on what makes for an appropriate sales message. You can live in only one of those worlds.
Which one do you choose?
