We all remember the days of cold calls in the middle of lunch and marketers eagerly spamming us with emails day and night. The old-fashioned methods were to some extent considered appropriate but were very quickly dubbed as intrusive, somewhat aggressive, and consistently ineffective in terms of inspiring loyalty and return business. Working in sales in the modern era comes with so many changes to the methods of yore, but it also comes with a slew of flexible, yet ethical solutions that expand on the notion of lead generation, nurturing, and qualifying. 

By combining ethical online and offline marketing and sales techniques, your customer-centric business can now actually skyrocket the affection it inspires among its customers. Since every brand and every industry are different, you will be able to mix and match between different approaches until you find the blend that fits your business, all the while learning how to keep your customers satisfied and eager to come back to your doorstep. If you’re not quite certain what you can do to make your sales and follow-up methods more ethical, here are a few ideas to add to your strategy.

Ask your customers – they know best

A simple “How did we do?” is a surprisingly effective doorway to an entire collection of informative responses. You simultaneously show your customers that you care about their opinion and you gather relevant information that can help you streamline your efforts in the future and communicate your services better. However, don’t ask the question until you’re ready to hear and implement the answers.

If they tell you that you’ve gone too far with frequent emails or that they find your discounts meaningless because you keep sending them offers they have zero interest in – this is your chance to shine and take their advice. 

Furthermore, surveys regarding your service or product are a unique glimpse into the reception of your brand. Every business needs room to evolve, and the data your customers give you is a well of innovation just waiting to spring to life. Above all, credit your customers for their contribution, and they’ll be even more inspired to share further insights when you ask them more questions next time. 

Add credibility to your efforts with data

Unlike old-fashioned sales pitches, follow-up emails, and messages, modern-day brands need to do everything in their power to sound less, well, salesy. Your customer already knows you’re trying to sell them something. Use your communication to show them how they can benefit from the sale and to share something valuable with them to keep their interest alive.

• Send them detailed how-to infographics with useful tips that contribute to their life. If you’re selling fitness gear, you can send them a guide on maximizing their workout performance with actionable, athlete-approved tips.

• Freebies are always a great idea, be it an e-book on a topic that would interest them, or a gift certificate for their birthday. Your customers will appreciate the attention and remember the gesture.

• Support your follow-up with research and studies that directly link your product or service to a benefit in their life. People do want to know how they will benefit other than saving a few bucks when there’s a discount. 

Personalize your follow-up

You need to remember that your brand is just another business filling your customers’ inboxes with offers, discount codes, follow-up emails, reminders that they’ve left something in your cart. They will often see your subject line and just send the email straight to the trash folder without opening it. For your follow-ups to have more impact and substance, give them a personal touch. 

If you’d like to surprise them for their birthday, you can customize cards with the help of PoscardMania and mail it directly to your customer together with a voucher for your store. A hand-written signature by your business owner would be another special touch worth remembering. Any customer that receives such treatment in this digitally-dominated era will certainly talk about the gesture to their loved ones. This also gives you the opportunity to follow up in a timely manner, but keep things more personal due to the connection you will have established by that point. 

Referral incentives for better business

Another way to formulate your follow-up without strictly using it to push your products or services is to let your customers know that if they share the love, so to speak, they can earn points with your brand and redeem them for something in your store. 

Perhaps they might not feel the need to make a purchase right now, but they know someone who could benefit from the buy. Incentivizing the referral just means that you give them that final “nudge” to forward your link. This instantly grants you access to a potential qualified lead, since your customer has already decided you’re a good match, and a chance to boost repeat business through referrals. 

Let your values do the talking 

Finally, all of the above methods are based on one premise that nowadays simply goes without saying: transparency. No hidden agenda, no hidden costs, no fine-print fees they cannot see until they hit the final checkout page. Transparency is the one key value that allows your sales team to establish meaningful connections and find a way to communicate with potential and repeat customers. 

Once you have established that transparency is the very foundation of the trust they place in your brand, you can introduce them to other values they can relate to. Do you donate a percentage of every purchase to a cause dear to your clientele? Do you feed shelter dogs from a portion of your profits? Do you give away your own products to those in need for every five (or every one) items sold in your store, like Bombas does? There are ways to allow your brand to epitomize anything you stand for. 

Wrapping up

In a world riddled by frauds and aggressive sales folk, you can develop a culture and a team that represents your brand in an ethical, customer-centric manner. These are examples of the tactics you can implement in your sales and follow-up strategy, so use them not just to boost your ROI, but also to make sure that your products and services go to people who will genuinely benefit from them. That is by far the best way to maintain loyalty and protect your reputation for years on end. 

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Sales is a naturally competitive domain and therefore attracts people who are results-oriented. Friendly competitiveness is generally encouraged as it increases motivation and drives productivity. However, when the goals are set too high, people might be tempted to engage in unethical sales practices. Such practices seemingly produce short term results but are not sustainable in the long run and are counterproductive to both the salesperson and the entire company.

Managers need to be aware of this dynamic and strive to create a competitive but fair environment within their sales teams. This is by no means an easy task but there are ways to keep people motivated and productive while following a code of ethics. This only works if the code of ethics is well defined and enforced.

Here are 6 ethical strategies that will increase your sales results and create long-lasting profitable relationships both within the company and with outside clients:

1. Define the company’s goals.

How do you get your employees to put customers’ needs above their own? Finding the answer to this question could increase ethical sales activities, but that is only seemingly so. This question is, in fact, irrelevant and the true question should be:

“How do you show your employees that their needs are interconnected with the needs of customers?”

As a manager, you need to set clear business goals and show how those goals are directly correlated to the happiness of your customers. You might be able to scam a customer into a bad deal, but as soon as he realizes that, he will cut his relationship with your company. A satisfied customer, on the other hand, will come back and continue using your product and in this way, provide long-lasting revenue for your business.

All goals need to be measurable in order to be effective. If a company sets customer satisfaction as a clear and measurable target, it will be easier to evaluate its efforts towards those goals.

2. Set up satisfaction-based rewards.

Salary and bonuses within the sales team are usually defined by the number of successfully closed deals. This drives your employees to produce results but gives no indication that those results need to be long-lasting. Setting a system which rewards sales employees for creating long-lasting client relationships can change the way they approach business interactions.

For example, you could pay out bonuses not only when a new client is brought on board but each time that client renews his contract. If the goals you set are well-defined, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, then setting up a reward system which incorporates those goals should be relatively straightforward. Employees need to be both morally and financially motivated towards the longevity of customer relationships and the best way to do that is by making it part of your company culture.

3. Outsourcing as an ethical solution.

Outsourcing is the process of hiring an outside company or individual to perform contracted work. Businesses use this method to reduce operational costs and oftentimes as a means of gaining an outside perspective on the task at hand.

There are certain ethical implications when it comes to outsourcing as certain people question its morality. The arguments are that companies should make local employment rates a priority rather than focus on cost-effective measures. However, the economic implications of outsourcing are far more complex than that. Establishing a free market where companies have more diverse options drives competitiveness and raises productivity.

A company might want to hire an outsourced sales team in order to lower operational costs and make it easier to continue operations. An argument can be made that local jobs would be lost without the option to hire more cost-effective outside help. Therefore, outsourcing is an excellent way to stimulate the local economy and create additional jobs, even if part of the company relies on outside help.

4. Lead by example.

Enforcing actions and attitudes only makes sense if you are following them as well. A leader needs to be a personal and professional example to other employees. But just acting the right way is not enough. You need to truly believe in the values that you represent and that you are willing to put on your business cards for everyone to see.

People have a natural way of differentiating between honest and disingenuous behavior and will only follow leaders who also act according to the moral standards they expect from others. Therefore, the best leaders are those that lead by example.

5. Organize coaching sessions for your sales team.

Many companies will put together a sales training to ensure that their employees are well-educated and skilled in their day to day sales activities. Sadly, ethical implications are most of the time not mentioned during such educational sessions even though they provide the right opportunity to educate the sales team on the best practices that are used for building long-lasting relationships.

A company should use every opportunity to promote its values and remind employees about the influence that those values have on the success of the company. One on one coaching sessions is also a good way to produce quick results among individual employees. Try to talk to them about the way they build trust with their clients and what the areas are where they feel like there is room for improvement. Work together with your employees to build a stronger and ethically conscious team.

6. Organize external seminars.

If you want to raise awareness about ethical strategies amongst your team, you could organize external seminars where you invite people from outside the company to participate. Have your employees prepare presentations where they teach others various skills that they learned about the sales business.

This will have multiple positive effects on your company. Firstly, it will get your sales team to interact with other people, making them more aware of their problems and desires. And secondly, it will promote your company as socially responsible and open to communication with the community.

Use the tips above to lay the foundation for a sales team that is more ethically aware. In time, you will notice the rise of trust-based customer relationships within your company. Such an approach will make dealing with customers easy and significantly increase sales results.

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