Integrity Selling Point #6: Integrity and High Ethics

Willingham's point: "Integrity and high ethics are accepted as the basis for long-term selling success." See Integrity Selling; How to Succeed in Selling in the Competitive Years Ahead (New York: Doubleday, 1987), p. xv.

Here's an example of the opposite. I have had a web designer managing my website for about a year now. He's done a good job, given freely of his expertise and done what I needed in a timely fashion for a reasonable price. I've always paid him on time, too.

Yesterday, after a couple of days of discussion over some things I wanted him to do for me, I got an email from him. He said,

I think it's time you found someone else to work on your website and blogs. You and I seem to have some fundamental differences on how things should be done and I can't keep you on as a client if we continue down this path. As it is right now I can't even include you in my business portfolio and I've seen no benefits in keeping you on as a 'local' contact. This is where we part ways, I wish you good luck in the future.

Point, Set, Match. Not even, let's talk about how we can work together better. Integrity and high ethics would demand such discussions.

I feel like asking him for my money back, but I won't. I won't spread any rumors about him, but he's not likely to get any recommendations from this desk unless we have a talk.

Looked at from his side, the relationship was not working for him. If you have that in your life, talk to your client or customer. Maybe you'll figure out something or if it's not going to work, you'll leave your client with a good feeling about you. But this is not that.

What do you think about this? Post a comment to this blog.

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.