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It is hard to disagree that good ethics is good business. What many organizations struggle with is how to support ethical behavior, communicate the values of good ethics within and […]

Greg Davies' potential customer didn't actually utter these words, but he might as well have. Davies, director of sales for Action Printing, based in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, had just […]

Are you caught up in a selling career that's built upon deception and lying? Is that the kind of career and life that you really want to lead? Much has […]

An overview and synthesis of sales force ethics research approaches is presented. Existing approaches are extended by the use of sequenced scenarios which require respondents to multiple scenarios concerning the same ethics issues. Use of scenario sequences allows for changes in 'significant others' and in information related to ethics issues. Examination of changes in salesperson decision making can be undertaken with this approach. Suggestions for research using sequenced scenarios and possible covariates are presented. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Unethical sales practices aren't new: The classic customer warning, "caveat emptor," dates to ancient Rome. But with ethical violations making headlines and eroding public trust, 20th century businesses are raising […]

For three days my sales supervisor rode with me, and for three days I had becom his personal jitney service. He asked me to drive him to a clothing warehouse, […]

Nothing is of greater importance to any business than the selling of its products or services. However, it is difficult to find a more ambiguous area of contemporary life. Without [...]

Much research attention has been directed over the past twenty-five years to ethical issues in marketing. One area of marketing that is gaining research interest is the selling arena. Despite the extant literature on selling ethics, few studies have focused on identifying situations that pose ethical problems for field sales personnel. This paper reports results of an investigation that examined salespeople's perceptions concerning what selling situations or practices are ethical questions, what situations are presently addressed by company policies, and what situations should be addressed by company policies. Findings reveal that salespersons seemingly are desirous of receiving more management guidance that they currently are receiving regarding their ethical concerns. Implications for managers and researchers are provided. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

If the ratio of females to males in selling jobs continues to increase, will it change the ethics of the sales profession? Do women entering sales have a distinctly different moral orientation from men? This article reports on research that sought answers to these questions by examining the ethical standards and moral reasoning of a sample of young men and women college students preparing for business and sales careers. The findings suggest women's ethical judgements are likely to differe form men's in ways that could enhance the ethical climate of sales organizations but may also cause controversy. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Passage of the 1980 Motot Carrier Act signaled a significant change in the direction of government regulation in the trucking industry, resulting in a substantially more competitive industry. Not surprisingly, the Act led to significant changes within the trucking industry, some positive and others negative. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which deregulation led to an increase or decrease in professionalism and ethical conduct among trucking company salespeople. Using results from a survey of domestic shippers, it is concluded that deregulation led to an increase or decrease in professionalism and ethical conduct among trucking company salespeople. Using results from a survey of domestic shippers, it is concluded that deregulation heightened professionalism and ethical standards among carrier sales representatives. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The purpose of this research is to examine the ethical beliefs and practices of salespersons of complex services. A Nominal Group Technique was utilized to identify 9 major ethical issues confronting insurance agents. Agents who have received ethics education perceived more unethical activities among others; however, ethics training had no impact on individual ethical behavior. Support was found for the theory of differential association as individual ethical misconduct was found positively related to perceptions of co-workers, successful agents, and other industry agents ethical misconduct. In addition, partial support was found for the increased incidence of unethical activity in competitive environments - perception of unethical behavior among co-workers was found positively related to the size of the firm, negatively related to the age of the agent, unrelated to the job tenure, and more prevalent in exclusive as compared to independent agencies. Sales agent age was also found negatively related to perceptions of successful agent and other industry agents ethical misconduct. Managerial implications and future research suggestions are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The common sales practice of providing gifts to purchasing executives often results in feelings of indebtedness on the part of the purchasing executive. This research utilizes a symbolic interactionist perspective in considering the relationships among the ethical climate of the purchasing organization, the organizational commitment of purchasing executives, and purchasing executives' feelings of indebtedness resulting from the receipt of gifts and favors. Findings suggest that interrelationships exist among ethical climate dimensions, organizational commitment, and the level of indebtedness felt by purchasing executives when they receive gifts or favors. Managerial and research implications are also presented. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This study examines the relative influences of corporate ethics codes, Machiavellianism, and gender on various components of sales professionals' decision making in ethical situations. The results of a mail survey of American Marketing Association members suggest that the ethical climate of an organization influences a salesperson's perceptions of an ethical problem and his/her perceptions of alternative courses of actions. The most ethically sensitive salespeople were found to be more agreeable with both punitive and nonpunitive types of remedial actions and less agreeable with a no-action alternative. The results also revealed a negative relationship between Machiavellianism and deontological norms. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Numerous investigations of unethical selling behavior report gender bias and conclude that women are more likely to receive lighter penalties than men for the same infraction. Based on the self-report responses to scenario-based surveys, these studies lack actual data to validate their findings. This research compared the published ethical code violations and penalties of salesmen and saleswomen to determine whether or not women are penalized less severely than their male counterparts. Results suggest that researchers should reexamine the value of self-report data for determining gender bias in judging unethical selling behavior. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

A model describing the process of ethical decision making is proposed. This model, termed the Ethical Decision/Action Process (EDAP), expands on the scope of prior models, and uses a four-component moral decision structure as its central focus. The behaviors which take place within the moral decision structure are influenced by the decision maker's characteristics and decision outcomes, and can vary in light of situational moderators. Research results related to the model configuration are presented and analyzed, drawn from selling, sales management, and other settings. Research and management implications are provided. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Bad Guys Finish Last What attracts and keeps customers? Superior service, of course. Quality products, no argument. Competitive pricing, as if you didn't know. A lively, brisk selling personality and […]

A nationally known sales periodical ran a feature story on topless bar hopping as part of a sales strategy and indicated that this is a common activity in sales. Another […]

At a baseball game in San Francisco, my friend Fritz managed to catch a foul ball. A kid sitting a few rows behind my friend was also among those scrambling [...]

The pension industry is trying to stave off a wholesale FSA investigation into contracting out from Serps by pushing for a voluntary review. Sources say a pension-style review of contracting […]

Advisers who do not recommend pension term assurance to their clients could risk misselling claims because life policies are liable to inheritance tax, warns Standard Life. Product marketing manager Mick […]

McC: If you have been in business a number of years, it makes absolutely no sense to have to buy new leads. Your best and cheapest leads come from marketing [...]

Byline: Charles S. Lauer One of the basic tenets in sales is never take anything for granted. I had this principle drilled into me by my bosses and I drill [...]

The Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into doorstep selling after receiving a so-called 'super complaint' from the Citizens Advice Bureaux, which highlighted problems with high-pressure sales techniques [...]

Unfortunately, when I first entered the sales profession, I was taught the way to sell was through manipulation, intimidation and domination. Our training back then stressed the best way to […]

We make the choice. Do we sell the value of our products, or do we deceive people into buying things? This is a decision that all finance & insurance people [...]

Several weeks ago I received a telephone call on my voice mail. It was from a person (we'll call him Fred) whose name I didn't recognize. Fred's message sounded important. [...]

Mansfield, Phylis M. and Jacquelyn Warwick (2000), 'The Impact of Post-Complaint Satisfaction with the Salesperson, Retailer, and Manufacturer on Relationship Commitment,' Proceedings of the American Marketing Association's Summer Educators' Conference, [...]

How do personal trainers approach the issue of selling or recommending merchandise to their clients? You are a hardworking personal fitness trainer with a solid client base, a respectable reputation [...]

The newspaper headline read, 'Inquiry sought into sales practices.' Uh oh. Sounds bad to me. But in this case, the headline was worse than the story. Turns out that the [...]

The influence of moral judgment, cognitive moral development, and competitive intensity on intentions to behave unethically was examined. A total of 152 salespeople from 26 firms located in the Southern U. S. that operate in a business-to-business environment completed and returned mail questionnaires. The salespeople responded to scenarios depicting unethical practices. Regression was the method of analysis. Moral judgment had the greatest significant effect on intentions with cognitive moral development exhibiting a lesser but still significant effect. Competitive intensity also exhibited a significant effect. As competitive intensity increased, intentions to behave unethically decreased., Schwepker, C.H. (1999), 'Understanding Salespeople's Intention to Behave Unethically: The Effects of Perceived Competitive Intensity, Cognitive Moral Development, and Moral Judgement,' Journal of Business Ethics, V. 21, I. 4 (October), [...]

I received a phone call from an ergonomics equipment sales representative the other day inquiring if I had knowledge of workstation design with regard to safety and ergonomics. I faxed [...]

BY LOUSIG-NONT & ASSOCIATES Believe it or not, testing shows that ethics is a necessary part of sales. Techs who may have felt that selling would degrade their integrity may [...]