In the field of personal selling, the temptation to maximize short-term gains by some type of unethical conduct is always present and occurs more often than in most other careers. Salespeople are especially vulnerable to unethical decision making, because they are subject to many temptations. These temptations are often motivated by offers from clients, competitors, company personnel, and suppliers, and may involve personal gain on the part of the salesperson. While attractive to one or more of the stakeholders associated with the sale in the short run, they serve as the basis for the destruction of long-term relationship, product, customer, and presentation strategies. A few examples follow:

• A customer asks you to create a set of product specifications for completing a sales proposal. A new supplier of yours indicates a sizable direct cash payment would be made to you if you listed the supplier’s technical data in the specifications. What would you do?

• You work with the research and development departments of the companies you call on, and therefore are trusted with confidential information about strategic new product development. One of your larger clients has asked if you could help them with a project by answering some questions about their competitor’s research activities. How would you respond?

• Your competition whom you know well wants to meet with you to talk about a competitive bid you will be presenting. A suggestion is made that if you will bid this job a little higher than they do, they will definitely do you the same favor on the next purchase made by your customer. What should you do?

• You have visited the buyer twice, and each time the person displayed a great deal of interest in your proposal. During a recent negotiations meeting, the buyer hinted that the order might be signed if you could provide tickets to a national sporting event. Your company has a long-standing policy that gifts are not to be given under any circumstances. What do you do?

• The competition is using exaggerated claims to close the sale of its product. Should you counteract this action by using exaggerated claims of your own to build a stronger case for your product?

• A lucrative proposal you are scheduled to make will provide only a mediocre solution to your client’s problem. Your client trusts you, and you know there are better solutions that are being provided by the competition that you cannot match. What would you do?

• Your sales manager is under great pressure to increase sales. At a recent meeting of the entire sales staff, this person said, “We have to hit our numbers no matter what it takes!” Does this emotional appeal change your way of dealing with customers?

• During a recent business trip, you met an old friend and decided to have dinner together. At the end of the meal, you paid for the entire bill and left a generous tip. Do you now put these nonbusiness-related expenses on your expense account?

These ethical dilemmas arise in the field of selling. How do salespeople respond? Some ignore company policy, disregard local, state, federal, and international laws, cast aside personal values and standards of conduct, and yield to the pressure. Yielding to this pressure often destroys long-term partnering relationships, and can result in fines, monetary damages, and, in some cases, prison time.

However, a large number of trusted salespersons are able to resist. They can be counted on by the various stakeholders to a sale to form highly ethical win-win relationships, fully understand the customers’ buying strategies, make honest nonexaggerated claims about their product, and fully embrace a needs-based consultative presentation strategy. Therefore, in the partnering style seller/buyer relationship, a high level of ethical decision making becomes the foundation for creating value (see Figure 3.2).