Are Ethics Situational?

“Hello?”

“Hi, this is John from Acme Software.” I just wanted you to know that my boss forwarded me your voicemail and I do not appreciate you going over my head. I’ve told you that we have not yet made a decision since this is not a priority for our company at this time. However, as a result of your behavior, we will not EVER do business with you or your company.”

This was a conversation I was part of 15 years ago…of course the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I’m not proud to admit that I was the person who said “Hello.”

I was 24 years old and in my first 6 months of my first outside sales position. I was trying desperately to hit my quota and listened (sometimes too much) to the advice on “how to succeed” from other salespeople around me.

It usually went like this:

“If a customer won’t respond and the value of your offer is strong, go to their boss! Your contact is probably just flaky and will probably be fired in the next year, for their incompetence anyway. It’s their fault for not even responding to your follow up voicemails and emails. Their boss needs to know they’re dropping the ball.”

Back to the phone call… When that guy called me, my first reaction was anger.  I’m competitive and a little stubborn, so my first reaction was to hate the decision maker for chewing me out. But with years comes perspective, and now I feel remorse and am happy to have learned a valuable lesson. I will never do that again because I KNOW it’s not the kind of person I want to be.

Ethics trumps money. In fact, it trumps EVERYTHING. I’ve also learned that you can be extremely ethical and ignore all of the unethical “sales techniques” that are taught by 90% of sales training… and still be very successful in sales. Actually, I know you can be MORE successful.

So what does Mike’s stumble have to do with me?

“You judge yourself by your Ethical Principals. Others judge you by your actions.”
– Harvin C. Moore

I think ethics needs to be discussed more. Not in general, but specific examples. I think most people think they’re ethical but do others agree?

Sure, nobody’s perfect and we all make mistakes… just like me. I’m ashamed to say that prospect (above), would probably think I’m a slime ball if he saw me today. If I ever recognized him, I’d apologize for being a fool.

We need to give grace to one another but we also need to be mindful of our sometimes “situational” unethical behavior. Ethics is an “always” principal, not a discretionary principal.  If we allow for grey area, we allow for frequent mistakes.

Today, I’m going to pose two examples (in relationship to IT buying and IT sales), that we all see on a regular basis, and put it up for discussion. Maybe I’ll do another one in another blog if I think you’d be interested.

No More “Principals” … Just Situations

Here are two actions, I see ALL the time. Do you? What do you think?

1. Salesperson

A salesperson has a potential client that has been pushing their decision for months. The pricing is great and the rep can’t figure out what’s holding the client from pulling the trigger. The salesperson has tried on several occasions to ask for feedback but the decision maker is not giving very much information as to why they are not making a decision. 
As a result, the salesperson decides to tell the client “Bad news! The promotion I offered is actually expiring this month, so if you want that price, you’ll have to sign up right away!” …knowing full-well that the promo is not ending anytime soon. She thinks, “Maybe this client just needs a reason to sign…” The strategy works and the client signs up and is very happy with the service, long-term.

2. Decision Maker

A decision maker tells a salesperson “Can you do any better on the pricing?  We have received a couple bids lower than this.”  In reality, the buyer has not received a lower bid but is just bluffing to see if he can get the salesperson to drop the price further. It works! The salesperson drops the price lower and the customer buys their product. Both parties are happy about the result.

Did either of these people act unethically?

About the Author
Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards and in 2011, he was honored as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. Follow Mike on LinkedIn, Twitter or SpiceWorks.