Complete Honesty

Please allow me this week to go on a Dennis Miller-type of a rant (perhaps with more understandable references).

Call me old fashioned, but I've about had it with the decline of honesty, integrity, and overall lowering of moral and ethical values in our society in general, and in business, specifically. What's worse is how this type of behavior is accepted--even expected-- in many aspects of society.

Sadly, it doesn't shock me any more when politicians sleep with interns and lie about it. 

I was blown away though, when I heard about a pharmacist in Missouri cheating by filling prescriptions at less than the full-strength of the prescribed medication! 

But the icing on the cake, what really set me off, was the 14-year old man-child (and/or his parents and coaches) lying about his age by two years so he could dominate in the Little League Baseball World Series! (C'mon, for adolescent boys, their years are more like dog years when comparing the physical stature of some 14-year olds to 12's.) 

Stay with me. I'm bringing this around to sales right now.

The ONLY acceptable way to sell and service professionally, in my opinion, is to do so with complete honesty. That means no deception, trickery, withholding of information, saying "It depends what 'is' is," or saying or doing anything your mother wouldn't be proud of.

Let's face it, in phone sales our jobs are tough enough anyway. We're trying to get people to take some type of action, and we're doing it with only about half of our communication capability (losing the visual and body language aspect over the phone).

Then, for those who cold call, we face the fact that most people are a bit skeptical of phone calls from people they don't know. Some even take the negative position from the get-go.

Then mix in the fact that there are plenty of sleazy, cheesy, carnival-barking boiler room telemarketing types out there contaminating the phone lines. It's no wonder that most people would rather have a double root canal than make sales or prospecting calls. (Except for us, that is.)

So, what to do?

Continue spreading the word about, and practicing the RIGHT way to sell. And be proud of it. Sales is the greatest profession in the world, when practiced the way it should be. Let's all be sure we're doing our part, and recruit a few others along the way.

A speaker on ethics in the workplace, Frank Bucaro, is author of the book: "Taking The High Road: How To Succeed Ethically When Others Bend The Rules."
www.frankbucaro.com
He says that "Ethics is what you do when no one is looking." And, "Ethics is a tough decision with the payout at the end. An unethical decision is an easy one with the payout up front!"

Dr. Denis Waitley, in his book "Seeds of Greatness," discusses his "Integrity Triangle." It is three basic questions we can ask of any decision: 

1. Is this true?
2. Is this what I believe I should do?
3. Is what I say consistent with what I do?

Further, Waitley says that to be effective humans, we need to be able to consider the impact of our decisions on others. He says, "When we honestly consider the well-being of others before we decide to profit ourselves, we become truly rich in the deepest sense."

Well said. That's how you truly become wealthy in sales.

Speaking of honesty, when I hear someone say, "To be honest with you." or, "The truth is.", I'm just a bit skeptical as to what they said when they didn't preface their remarks with those lines.

Scummy no-lifer geeks who get their kicks by creating and spreading computer viruses should be hung up from telephone poles by their ears with Vise-Grips ... in an amount of time equal to the time they cause people to clean up the damage caused by their dirty work. (Had to add that one. I'm sick of getting these infected emails.)

Here's a ruse that causes me to want to toss my cookies every time someone mentions it--which is often. The intent is flat-out deception, yet some people think it's cute and gets phone calls returned on voice mail messages:

You leave a message saying, ".and I have a great idea for you. Please call me at 555-555-2222. This will help you to--" then you hang up at that point. The intent is to make the other person think you were cut off, and they're then curious as to what you were saying. Does it work? I'm sure it might get a phone call or two returned. Does it reek of cheesiness? For sure.

Ever have a situation where you were asked if you could provide something, and you either knew you couldn't, or, it was borderline that you might be able to on your company's very best day? How did you respond? It's always better to fess up, and then point them in the direction of where they can get what they want.

Keep a referral file of people and resources who can deliver what you regularly get requests for, but don't provide. Perhaps you can get them to do the same with you. You position yourself as a true value-added resource and customers remember that.

Think about what a screener says to the boss about YOU when you're on hold: 

1. "There's a suspicious bozo on line two. He's evasive, and won't give me any information, but he insists on talking only to you. Want me to flush him?"

2. "I've got Pat Davis with Automation Industries on line two. She spent some time asking me a few questions, and says that she might be able to offer a few ideas on shortening up the implementation time on the e-commerce initiative you're working on. She sounds very knowledgeable and would like to ask you a few questions. Should I put her through?"

Dr. Alan Zimmerman www.zcn.com  says that when it comes to customer loyalty, nothing is more important than the trust you develop with your customers. He cites research from Texas A&M University stating that if the customer can trust you, if he sees you as being reliable and doing what you say you will do, he will be an ENTHUSIASTIC customer. And who couldn't use more of those right now?

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"Real integrity stays in place whether the test is adversity or prosperity."
Charles Swindoll

"There is no twilight zone of honesty. A thing is right or wrong. It's black or it's white."
John F. Dodge

"Some things I have adhered to are: to have integrity, to never deceive anybody, to have my word good. Under no circumstances deviate from that."
Conrad Hilton


God Bless America,

Art

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Contact: Art Sobczak
President, Business By Phone Inc.
Editor and Publisher, TELEPHONE SELLING REPORT newsletter
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