Chapter 2 Quick Review
What might be a few ethical responsibilities of a sales manager in regard to their treatment of and interactions with their salespeople?
1. Level of Sales Pressure 2. Decisions Affecting Territory 3. Telling the Truth 4. The Ill Salesperson 5. Employee Rights
What are the unethical practices that can affect co-workers and should be avoided by sales professionals?
1. Misusing Company Assets 2. Moonlighting 3. Cheating 4. Technology Theft
What are the key steps an organization can take to manage sales ethics?
1. Top management taking the lead 2. Carefully selecting leaders 3. Establishing and following a code of ethics 4. Creating ethical structures 5. Formally encouraging whistle-blowing 6. Creating an ethical sales climate 7. Establishing control systems
What are the 10 suggestions that salespeople should implement to avoid misrepresentations and breach of warranty issues when dealing with customers?
1. Understand the distinction between general statements of praise and statements of fact made during the sales pitch, and their legal consequences 2. Thoroughly educate all customers before making a sale 3. Be accurate when describing a product's capabilities 4. Know the technical specifications of the product 5. Avoid making exaggerated claims about product safety 6. Know federal and state laws regarding warranties and guarantees 7. Know the capabilities and characteristics of your products and services 8. Keep current on all design changes and revisions in your product's operating manual 9. Avoid offering opinions when the customer asks what results a product or service will accomplish unless the company has tested the product and has statistical evidence 10. Never overstep authority, especially when discussing prices or company policy
What is an ethical dilemma? Can you describe a few approaches or considerations that a salesperson could use when confronted by an ethical dilemma?
An ethical dilemma is a situation in which each alternative choice or behavior has some undesirable elements due to potentially negative ethical or personal consequences. In real life, there always conflicting viewpoints, fuzzy circumstances, and unclear positions. Though difficult, it is critically important to cut through the smoke screen that sometimes exists in such situations and use 20/20 vision to make an ethical choice.
What are ethics?
Ethics is the code of moral principles and values that govern the behaviors of a person or a group with respect to what is right or wrong.
What are the two major influences on the ethical behaviors of a salesperson?
The individual's role: All of us, employees and manger alike, bring certain beliefs about the world to a job. These beliefs direct our daily decisions. This "big picture" view of life that directs our behavior is based upon our core beliefs system. It is often referred to as a person's worldview. The organization's role: If the vast majority of people in our society are at the preconventional or conventional level, it seems that most employees in an organization would feel they must "go along to get along"; in other words, they acquiesce to questionable ethical standards to keep their jobs. At most, they only follow formal policies and procedures.
