Why is it so important for a business to have a code of ethics? It's important that businesses have a code of ethics because it will impact how they treat their own employees, how employees are supposed to treat one another, and how employees are supposed to treat their customers. Without something in place like that, the chances of mistakes and poor decisions by employees or just the unknown of what is the expectation is really not a good situation to be in as a company. What are some potential benefits a company might see by practicing good ethical behavior? Customer loyalty would be the number one. They have customers who are loyal because they know that they have standards, and they never waver from those standards. What's one of the most unethical actions you've ever known a business to try to get away with, and what happened as a result? There was a company, a large company that I worked for, and we would call on various customers and try and have them sign contracts for different equipment. I noticed I had gone to an account because I just started with this firm, and this poor husband and wife who owned a postal office were very upset because they'd been shipped piece of equipment and never purchased it, and what I had found is that the salesperson had told them to just sign on this document to say that he had actually seen them, and given them the options, and the document that they actually signed was a contract to purchase a piece of equipment. Even when I went to my boss, and said this was done in error, we should never have had this happen, they would not resented. So, I subsequently left the company several months later because it's very hard to work for a company that you don't have the same values as. It's just impossible, and so that was an example of, just unfair business practice. How does a failure to demonstrate ethical sales practices lead to an unsuccessful business? Well, customers, people know when you're being unfair to them and when you're not treating them right. You have all this time to make a great impression, but only one time, if you mislead a customer or dishonest with them, you could lose that forever. So, it's one of those things that it has to be practiced on a daily basis, because it only takes one time to lose a customer, and to lose their trust. How can business improve its ethical behavior? Number one is having a code of ethics, making sure that everyone in that company, from the secretary to the delivery person, whoever it is knows exactly what that company's code of ethics is, and also, in our company and many companies that I worked for, that code of ethics is on every wall, in every cafeteria, in every room, so that it is just constantly drilled into the employees. This is what we think is important, and this is the way as a representative of this firm you need to act. Now, there's some professions like medicine and journalism that have established ethical codes that are kind of a baseline for anybody who does that job, does anything like that exist in sales? Definitely in sales, and its been Sales Education Foundation brought out this sales code of ethics several years ago, and we teach that here at WVU, making sure that sales people are always honest. That they never mislead a customer. They work truly in the best interests of that customer, even though it may not be in the best interest of them. So, we do have a sales code of ethics, and it's an excellent document, and so the students who learned here WVU, we go through that and we talk about you need to commit to this type of thing, and make sure that customers understand, this is your code of ethics, and this is what you follow. They respect you for it.
