Can an honest person be a good sales person?

[agkm800]

Let's narrow the field a little and just consider following sales positions that are more closer to the general public:

- TV home shopping hosts
- Real estate agents
- Used car salesmen

Can an honest person become a top sales person in above fields of sales? What are your thoughts?

 

[0098386]

If the service/product is good then yes, an honest person could be. I guess. But for the overwhelming bulk - no. I've had so many calls recently trying to sell me life insurance, new phones or other ridiculous things. I'm looking into getting my number put on some register that prevents these calls (overheard a telesales person on the bus talking about it). So hopefully I'll be clear of these.

The worst (drifting here) are the foreign ones. I have foreign relatives but I find some accents impossible to understand, especially when the connection is pants.

 

[IntheNet]

Can an honest person become a top sales person in above fields of sales? What are your thoughts?

All too often salesmen or saleswomen are portrayed by their base worst representatives; the absolute worst are shown as representative of the whole! That is sad, since there are good and moral salesmen and saleswomen and history is rich with their fields of endeavor.

One of the problems today is "best" is often equated with "high volume" in the sales field; the fact is an honest sales person may not be able to achieve the high volume if he or she is honestly representing what they sell. Can an honest person be a top sales person? Absolutely. Consider the following:

A 33-year old who starts a completely new organization founded in abject poverty, revolutionizes the entire world, touches every nation with his product, and then sells membership in his organization that continues to this day as one of the world's wealthiest. Who was this amazing salesman? Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes - honesty can go hand-in-hand with success in sales but your assessment of "top sales" may have to change to include morality. -Television home shopping hosts, real estate agents, and used car salesmen all have to deal with volume sales but if you're like me, when you have to buy something from a home shopping show, buy real estate, or buy a used car, you will value someone who takes time and is honest with you. This person may not be a "top sales" leader but he/she will be the one you reward with follow-up and secondary orders and new business: the best sign of a good salesman or saleswoman.

Good salesman are more interested in repeat business. There's your answer. Try getting repeat business if you lie or are dishonest the first time!

 

[Love]

All too often salesmen or saleswomen are portrayed by their base worst representatives; the absolute worst are shown as representative of the whole! That is sad, since there are good and moral salesmen and saleswomen and history is rich with their fields of endeavor.

One of the problems today is "best" is often equated with "high volume" in the sales field; the fact is an honest sales person may not be able to achieve the high volume if he or she is honestly representing what they sell. Can an honest person be a top sales person? Absolutely. Consider the following:

A 33-year old who starts a completely new organization founded in abject poverty, revolutionizes the entire world, touches every nation with his product, and then sells membership in his organization that continues to this day as one of the world's wealthiest. Who was this amazing salesman? Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes - honesty can go hand-in-hand with success in sales but your assessment of "top sales" may have to change to include morality. -Television home shopping hosts, real estate agents, and used car salesmen all have to deal with volume sales but if you're like me, when you have to buy something from a home shopping show, buy real estate, or buy a used car, you will value someone who takes time and is honest with you. This person may not be a "top sales" leader but he/she will be the one you reward with follow-up and secondary orders and new business: the best sign of a good salesman or saleswoman.

Good salesman are more interested in repeat business. There's your answer. Try getting repeat business if you lie or are dishonest the first time!

You win.

 

[63dot]

Yes and no.

Yes to Jesus Christ as mentioned above, but I don't think he was selling anything material.

For selling material stuff, if it's good and affordable, then yes it's easy. If what you are selling is obviously overpriced, of questionable quality, or both, then it's harder to be honest. If a person wants a computer, but for no specific tasks, but wants it to last, then I sell them a Mac (like an iMac or iBook) and because it lasts longer than a PC and has fewer problems, the product almost sells itself. Mac OS is also easier to learn than Windows thus saving the buyer time after they make a purchase.

But when I sold PCs, I was pressured not to mention the Macintosh option since the chain store just broke off relations with Apple. Secondly, we were pressured to sell in store warranties which would replace or fix the gear, but not offer Apple type tech support or answer questions. When the store now only sells PCs and your sole job is to sell them with warranties, or lose your job, then the work becomes uncomfortable. Back then, the big push was the stores premier seller, the eMachine line which was not up to par back then.

Being honest, I didn't sell those warranties, but I did sell those machines and told buyers about how to defrag the machine often, get used to reinstalling Windows once a year, and letting them know that they may have to get a new power supply in a year or two. Customers were glad I told them what they were getting up front so I sold a lot of them.

The service was just replacing stuff, which could take a long time and leave the user without a machine for weeks, or longer. But as for small fixes and helping a person work with a machine, the PC companies deemed that useless. If a person wanted to put RAM in their PC, just mail in the machine, they would do it, and ship it back...eventually.

With Apple service and support, they tell you over the phone and there's no need to lose computing time. The PC companies did not want to spend money hiring and retaining great customer service. Apple usually was a stickler about customer support, and since the late-90s, they have steadily improved.

No wonder Apple is now #1 in customer support. And it's worth the slightly higher price tag.

 

[63dot]

I think honesty in selling a nicely made product is where the United States fell behind Europe and Asia in automobiles and some other products.

At one time GM, Ford, and Dodge ruled because they were good and affordable. Soon they became legendary and put foreign makers to shame pushing the Europeans into a small niche, boutique market and the Japanese into second rate economy cars. But the US rested on their laurels and when quality went down, they wouldn't admit it and point to what they used to make, how they used to be great.

Fewer and fewer people bought the made in America argument, or that it was naturally better because Americans made it. In that time, Volkswagen upped their quality and Mercedes and BMW lowered their prices. Japan improved the Honda line and brought out the Lexus and Infinity. Korea got in the car game and imho surpassed the USA dollar for dollar on low and mid priced cars.

What was shameful was as late as the '90s, the American car companies were trying to push the idea that they still had the best quality while they didn't listen to the public's demand for safety, handling, and fuel economy. But now there are some great American cars, but the damage has already been done as many still remember the denial and laziness of resting on one's laurels. We made the original '55 and '57 Chevy, the Ford Mustang, and the Corvette, but didn't continue to innovate and keep the quality up on later Chevys and Mustangs, and it showed.

So dishonesty on a personal level can have consequences, but when done on a company level, it can affect the entire economy of a nation.