Reward the right behavior and promote the right people, for starters.
June 20, 2019
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Sales scandals can take a large toll. Companies must take steps to protect themselves from the risk of sales fraud: and our research with over 1,000 sales professionals in 50 companies has uncovered some best practices that we think should proliferate across salesforces of all sizes and in all industries. The good news is that interventions to improve sales ethics should pay for themselves–and not just in the form of risk mitigation. Companies with higher ethical standards experience greater customer loyalty, satisfaction, and referrals. In our experience, one of the biggest dangers in selling is a narrow perspective—focusing on immediate profits and sales goals at the expense of broader gains. With a narrow perspective, sales professionals may make deals that are bad for the customer, misrepresent products or services, or make promises that internal departments cannot deliver. In each of these situations, the company risks losing more than it gained. Conversely, a broad perspective–that strives for organizational purpose beyond money–motivates employees and, in fact, does not inherently undermine profits.
