What Does “Integrity” Mean in Sales?
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The words “honesty” and “integrity” are often used interchangeably, and rightfully so. In a way, you can’t have honesty without integrity, and vice versa.
Of course, just like my article on honesty, we are not going over the book definition of “integrity”, instead you will read about the Sales Therapy definition of it!
In sales, integrity is best shown by simply honoring your commitments and verbalizing your limitations. If you agreed to have a meeting with someone, you have the meeting with them. If you agree to have an important document over to a customer by a certain time, you deliver it early.
However, sometimes demonstrating integrity means not making any commitments at all, and you’ll read about that in this article as well.
Honoring Your Commitments
When you agree to produce something for a customer, whether it be paperwork or a tangible product, you must deliver the work, and deliver it on time.
Even if it is something seemingly insignificant to you, you should give that just as much priority as anything else a customer would ask you to do. Again, regardless of how seemingly insignificant the request appears to be.
The other part of this is to be honest!
Remember, honesty and integrity are interchangeable!
If you are unable to deliver the results when the customer needs them, you should make them aware of the delay as soon as possible. Even a short delay on your end may have significant repercussions for your customer, or your customer’s customer!
This is especially true if you are in OEM sales, or if you sell any type of component to another company who uses it in a finished product they produce. Delays in any part of the OEM’s supply chain could spell disaster for their projects.
The earlier a customer can know about a delay, the better their reaction will be!
They may still be a little upset about the delay in general, but they will appreciate the notice and will remember you for it!
Show Up to the Meeting
This should go without saying, but if you commit to have a meeting with a prospect, you should never blow it off.
But, why would someone schedule a meeting with a customer and then not show up?!
Trust me, I’ve seen it before! A sales call gets scheduled, the salesperson continues to prospect and a much better appointment comes along, so they “cancel” the first appointment they made in place of the “better” prospect.
This does happen, and a lot of times the prospect doesn’t even get a courtesy email saying that something has come up. The salesperson figures, “there’s no relationship there anyway, so who cares what they think?”
It shouldn’t surprise you to know the people who have that kind of mentality are not too great at building business relationships. And by now, you probably know that building relationships in B2B sales is pretty much the bulk of the real work.
But, why does it matter if you do that to a prospect who doesn’t know you or your company?
It’s not like they can stop doing business with you, right?
The problem with that is simple. If you want to sell with empathy, you need to treat everyone the way you would want to be treated by another salesperson. How would you feel if someone scheduled an appointment with you, and then just never showed up?
Oh, that’s right, it has happened to you before, yeah? Probably countless times.
It’s happened to me plenty of times!
That means you know how shitty it feels when that happens. You shouldn’t want to make anyone else feel that way, especially someone who could potentially do business with you!
That is what it means to truly demonstrate integrity, and sell with empathy.
Know When to Say “No”
We opened the article with honoring commitments and delivering results when they’re expected to be done. Basically, that means saying, “yes” whenever a customer asks for a request, right? The customer asks for something, you say yes, and now you’re committed!
But what about saying “no” to a customer when you need to?
Demonstrating integrity doesn’t mean saying yes to everything and overloading yourself with work that you know you can’t finish. That’s just a recipe for a disastrous sales cycle, and a poor reputation!
You have to be honest with yourself, and acknowledge the limit of your capability. If you currently have too much work to take on, or too many active projects open, you may have to tell a customer “no”.
But, why would you do that? You want their business, right?
Yes, but more than their business, you want their loyalty. Their loyalty will be built after you build a meaningful relationship with them, and that is exactly what Sales Therapy will teach you!
Think of it from a different perspective. Imagine you are overbooked, and a customer really needs something from you. You know you can’t possibly deliver it in time for them, but you also want to keep their business and make money.
If you did that, and took much longer than they wanted to complete the work, they will not be happy with you.
On the other hand, if you were to have said, “customer, unfortunately I am booked, and if I take that project on I wouldn’t be able to deliver it on time. Unless you can wait a few more days for it, you may want to call COMPETITOR NAME”.
This shows them that you genuinely want to help them, and you aren’t just looking out for the ol’ mighty dollar. You’re helping them by being honest, letting them know you can’t get it done on time, and even showing them that there’s no hard feelings by suggesting they call a competitor.
Tell them to go to a competitor?!
I know, that’s craziness!
But is it? You should have a really close relationship with the customer, right? Don’t you think they’d rather wait a few more days than to take their business elsewhere unless they absolutely had to?
I’d be willing to bet your customer could wait a few extra days for you. If you follow my advice in regard to selling with empathy, then you should have a strong enough relationship with the customer that they wouldn’t want to go anywhere else because they like you as a person.
CONCLUSION
If you haven’t already, you should check out my article, “What Does Honesty Mean in Sales?” since the two topics are so closely related.
There’s nothing really earth-shattering in this article, and it may even sound like common courtesy. Well, that’s exactly what it is! It’s just common courtesy!
It just means treating your customers and prospects the way you’d want to be treated by another salesperson. If you do that, and stay consistent, you’ll have absolutely no problem building strong business relationships!
When do you want to schedule your first Sales Therapy meeting?
First one’s FREE! Just click on the “For You” button!
