What comes to mind when you think of salespeople? I googled this question and here are some descriptions I found: Aggressive. Pushy. Persistent. Pestering. Used Car Salesman. Greedy. Talks too much. Money Hungry. Egotistical. Annoying. These descriptions are not very flattering. I thought I'd point out the obvious.
I recently interviewed someone who worked as a bank teller at VanCity. The number one thing that frustrated Henrik (not Sedin and not his real name) about his job was that he felt continually pressured by his managers to sell more products. Henrik hated trying to sell people credit cards, loans, and lines of credit, especially when they didn't need them.
"But how do you know the customers don't need our products?" his manager would ask Henrik. "They just don't know how great VanCity's products are so you have to find some way to tell them. Then convince them that they need it and it will make their life better. We at VanCity are only trying to serve our customers. And the more VanCity products our customers use, the more we're able to serve them right? Riiiight Henrik?" (okay, maybe the conversation didn't go quite like that, but I'm paraphrasing)
The interesting thing I discovered was how Henrik's work evaluations were done. The categories were 1) Following rules, 2) Friendly service, and 3) Sales. Now I would expect that maybe these categories would be equally weighted, but that was not the case. 10% of Henrik's score was based on following the rules. 10% on friendly service. And 80% on whether Henrik hit his sales targets.
I'm not sure how you feel about your bank teller's work performance being 80% dependant on how many products he/she sells, but it sure doesn't make me feel that good. This doesn't make me feel like the bank really has its customers' best interests in mind.
Take another example. Ethan is a growing Christian who loves Jesus and works for Koodo, selling their phone plans. While talking to Ethan today, he said he prefers getting paid hourly rather than paid on commission (where the money he makes increases with the more products he sells). He thinks that if he were paid on commission, he would feel more tempted to sell Koodo products unethically. Being paid hourly doesn't make Ethan lazy; he still has a good work ethic and does his job well, but now he can focus on genuinely helping customers find products that will benefit them most.
Perhaps the general public's dislike of salespeople stems from their perception that salespeople will do anything to sell more (including being friendly and helpful). Sometimes you hear people use the politically incorrect idiom that a good salesperson can "sell ice to an Eskimo". It reflects the perception that salespeople want to maximize sales, even at the expense of selling something the customer does not need.
Yet even though I generally distrust salespeople, I have to admit that I have encountered salespeople who have been genuinely helpful. These people were able to educate me on the products and leave me with the decision of whether I should purchase or not.
How can sales be done in a way that honors God? Should God-honoring businesses even have salespeople?
