Sales ethics are the virtues that salespeople should uphold when carrying out their responsibilities. These are codes of conduct that sales professionals must abide by to ensure that they are fair and diligent to the customers they transact business with. Sales professionals must comply with the codes of conduct established to ensure that the transactions they carry out with their clients are transparent (Cant & Heerden 2005, p. 65). All the activities that are undertaken during sales must conform to the standards that are stipulated within the code of conduct. Sales professionals need to ensure that the pricing, functions and the guarantees that accompany a product are true. The actions of sales professionals have an impact on the expenditure patterns of the company’s consumers.
Cant and Heerden (2005, p. 72) emphasize that sales ethics protect consumers from making wrong decisions based on misleading information provided by salespeople. Sales ethics has become a prominent subject because of the increase in the consumption of defective products by consumers as a result of being given misleading information. Some salespeople do not explain to a potential consumer all the issues that are involved before they purchase a product or a service. The sales professionals’ promises are not fulfilled when the consumers discover the product is of an inferior quality than they had been made to believe. Sales ethics provide professional standards, which all salespeople should fulfill as part of the several obligations they have to their customers.
Sales ethics help a salesperson to understand if he is serving the interests of his customers and employer properly. Salespersons who have high integrity standards create a high level of trust in the clients, which fosters strong consumer relationships. A trustworthy salesperson makes the customer loyal to the product and this sustains the brand appeal of a specific product within the market (Thomas 2008, p. 57). The performance of a product within the market a company targets is improved because of the emotional connection it has with its loyal customers. The salesperson needs to do more to fulfill a client’s needs and expectations regarding the usefulness of the purchased product. A satisfied customer is likely to return to make another purchase in the future because of the positive service he gets after transacting with the salesperson.
Sales ethics instill into salespeople the ability to value the relationship that exists between them and their clients. A salesperson needs to be committed to his clients to make them aware of the positive results they can get as a result of using the product he sells to them. The information offered should not be misleading or exaggerated. The client should be left to decide if the information provided is appealing enough to suit his expectations and the needs he wants the product to fulfill. Sales ethics provide salespeople with effective strategies to make them discharge their duties as expected (Thomas 2008, p. 64). This reduces the irresponsible manipulation of clients by salespeople during a transaction.