The Importance of Ethics in Interpersonal Relationships
The wrongness or the rightness of behaviors and motives when dealing with others is what describes ethics. Ethics are what describe the moral content of people's behavior. When it comes to an interpersonal relationship, ethics is a vital factor since its where leadership and persuasion are involved, and ethics becomes even more critical considering that to have a good interpersonal relationship, one has to rely on the integrity and the objectivity of the other individual. To me, having ethical conduct is all about following the accepted and established moral principle in the profession work that one does. Ethics are also, what one believes to be right or wrong.
The Influence of Society's Standards on Ethics
When one is determining what is right or wrong what forms the basis in any situation is ethics (Medeiros et al. 2017). Society's standards are what in most cases determine the ethical standards for any particular profession (Medeiros et al. 2017). Majority of companies have established codes of behavior that are well suited to these society's standards. When ethical standards are well abided, there is the promotion of goodwill, and long-term relationships are established. When it comes to the field of sales, the trust that is brought about by the ethical standards reduces the risk of buying.
The Significance of Sales Ethics
Sales ethics are enormously vital for any company. They demonstrate accountability and knowledge on the side of the firm and that of workers to its consumers or customers, and it is therefore reciprocally beneficial to all involved parties. For any salesperson, their fundamental ground rule should be "the welfare of the customer comes first and foremost." However, ethical questions will always rise from every feature of selling. Most of the salespersons are individuals who respect and obey all the ethical requirements from them, but there are also a good number of the salespersons who are mischievious and want more profit hence they go for deceptive practices, illegal activities, and non-customer-oriented behaviors in the course of their sales (Ferrell " Ferrell, 2009).
The Role of Trust in Sales Ethics
My ethics in any situation I encounter be it buying or selling is that the person is trading with should be honest, open, trustworthy and if there is something they feel I should know, they should never hesitate to tell me. Consequently, I believe that is should reciprocate these personal beliefs when trading. Just like trust is my ethic that I have, sales ethics also completely depend on trust. For any company to prosper in sales, it must build a reputable relationship with its customers, and this can only happen if there is trust between the two parties.
The Importance of Credibility in Sales Ethics
Credibility is another personal ethic that I believe in. It is crucial to me that I am credible in whatever I do and I put full effort to ensure that I do not disappoint or fall short of what is expected of me. Credibility helps to build trust that is the basis of my ethics. Sales ethics are also built on reliability. Credibility in sales comes from performance (Cron, DeCarlo " Dalrymple, 2010). Credibility produces a reputation that can be counted on by the customers and loyalty is established in the process. The key to customer loyalty is customer selling.
Unethical Practices in Sales
In the business world, salespersons take several actions take are completely unethical. One such action I have encountered is deceptive practices. A deceptive practice occurs "whenever the manufacturer, producer, seller or supplier, through false, concealment representation of fraudulent manipulation, induces a consumer to enter into a sale or lease transaction of any consumer product or service" (Carson, 2001). One time when I was buying an electronic as a gift for a family member, the salesman convinced me how it was great and he even verbally explained some special qualities that the electronic had only to reach home and find out it of poor quality as opposed to what the salesman said. I believe that there should be honest when describing the quality of a product when they are being sold. There is no need to exaggerate when one is sure that the product they are selling does not meet the qualities they are describing.
Another major issue highlighted by sales ethics is illegal activities. In several cases, a major issue for many companies is the misuse of its assets. Unethical employees are seen taking a company's asset, for instance, a car and using it for their endeavour. Additionally, some go to the extent of adding expenses that never existed, and that is why such actions are termed as illegal activities. My ethics is that I should respect and follow the provided guidelines for instance if there are some things that I should not do in my place of work, then I should do my best to avoid such things.
The third most important area of unethical behavior in sales is the Non-customer-oriented behavior done by some salespeople. One experience I had is when we were buying a mattress with my parents was that the salesman was explaining about the long-term health benefits of buying that particular mattress and he kept on insisting on us that we should buy the mattress that day since his price was an offer and only for that day. We felt pressured, and we decided to move on to other retail shops. This is a representation of hard sale, which is a Non-customer-oriented behavior. I believe that customers should be given time to choose what they want to buy without any pressure.
References
Cron, W. L., DeCarlo, T. E., " Dalrymple, D. J. (2010). Sales management: Concepts and cases. John Wiley " Sons.
Ferrell, L., " Ferrell, O. C. (2009). An enterprise-wide strategic stakeholder approach to sales ethics. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 17(3-4), 257-270.
Carson, T. (2001). Deception and withholding information in sales. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11(2), 275-306.
Medeiros, K. E., Watts, L. L., Mulhearn, T. J., Steele, L. M., Mumford, M. D., " Connelly, S. (2017). What is Working, What is Not, and What We Need to Know: a Meta-Analytic Review of Business Ethics Instruction. Journal of Academic Ethics, 1-31.
