CHARLOTTE- They say, “It’s all about the Benjamins”?  Do you approach sales with a win-at-all-costs attitude?  And if so, who wins?  Your company?  Ok.  You?  Ok.  But you’re leaving somebody out who is very important to the process, aren’t you?

What about your customer?

When we talk about the other side of the coin here…your customer…don’t you want that company and their representative to trust you?  To trust that you are also selling with their best interests in mind, as well as your own?  Because after all, you are now showing your customers through your actions, that you understand that when you succeed, they succeed as well.  And when you both succeed repeatedly, then your “customer” becomes a long-time “client”.

It is about selling with integrity.  Selling with integrity is steeped in helping others succeed as well.  It’s about working with a client in such a way that when you do business together, you’ve both come to trust that you, the salesperson, will treat him/her in such a way that you both feel good about working together.

Selling with integrity is about other things as well.  It’s also about making sure things get done in the timeframe you’ve promised.  It’s about making sure the product or service you’re promoting is everything you claim it to be.  Furthermore, it’s about going above and beyond…as you’ve promised…not because you said you’d do it but because you want to do it.  And perhaps most difficultly, it is admitting a mistake up front without shifting the blame, should there be an error.

Selling with integrity can be a challenge.  It sometimes forces you to stretch beyond your comfort limits but when you do that, three other great things happen:

1).   You now come to realize that you’re more than even you may have thought;

2).   You become irreplaceable in the eyes of your client.  It’s become almost as if you’re part of their company;

3).    You no longer have to worry about being on the defensive regarding the when, why, how, and what.  As in the customer consistently questioning, “Is it going to be delivered when you said so.”, “Why is the price so high?”, “How is this going to help me?”, and “What in the world was I thinking about when I decided to do business with you?”

Selling with integrity can be a challenge, no doubt.  However, the challenge in becoming better for your clients (as well as for you and your company), comes with great rewards.