Is Sales Ethics Oxymoron - Literature review Example

Is Sales Ethics Oxymoron? Introduction Sales plays an integral role in ensuring goods are transferred to consumers. However, salesperson in attempt to reach the target volume might behave unethically while interacting with various stakeholders like customers, competitors and employers. It is these pressures that raise the issues of sales ethical behaviours as per the rules of moral philosophy. To convince their customers, salespersons are known to combine numerous tactics. Thus, the issue of sales ethics raises many questions. The aim of this paper is to discuss by affirming or refuting using case examples and academic works whether sales ethics is an oxymoron. Sales, Ethics and Oxymoron Sales is a subsection of marketing process that entails persuading the prospective customer or client that the products and services provided by a given firm or by the sales representative’s firm offers the benefit that the customer is looking for (Abed and Haghighi 2009, 266). Various moral theories conceptualise ethics from a relative perspective. Non-consequentialism theories like Kantian offer a different paradigm as compared to consequentialism theories such utilitarian (Sunita 2005, 110). Ethics is marked with relativism. Various cultures perceive ethics from different perspective. What might be right in US might not be right in Saudi Arabia (Wood 1995, 11). Nevertheless, the ultimate moral grounding of ethics is doing what ought to be right as per the norms and expectations of the society (Bennett 2010, 3). Lastly, Evans (2003, 666) conceptualises oxymoron as “combination of contradictory or incongruous words”. Sales Ethics Sales constitute one of the critical components in the operations of a firm. However, sales persons faces the critical dilemma of attaining what is right (ethical) and what is wrong (unethical). In order to reach the sales target in a given period of time, sometimes, sales people are faced with situations like deception, bribery, price fixing and market rigging without considering the impact of their behaviour on the consumer (Wood 1995, 21). Wood (1995, 7) notes that it is the pressure to attain that forces individuals or the organisation as a whole to deviate from the expected norms and this is why many ethical questions arises in the international marketing affecting purchasing and sales sides of exchanges. The question that brings forth the issue of oxymoron is the honest relationship or lack of it in the dealings between sales person and the customer. The underlying assumption is that the public at large and the individual customers demand fairness in all dealings with corporations. However, sometimes sales people/ retailers are known to employ unethical practices (Abratt, Bendixen and Drop 1999, 91). View Points: Is Sales Oxymoron? Collins (1994, 1) posits that most business ethics including sales ethics is an oxymoron. Based on the conceptualisation done earlier above, this implies that sales normally two contradictory concepts into an operation. To affirm such a view that sales is always oxymoron would imply that there is no ethics in sales process and thus unethical or inherently bad. Such kind of perspectives has been alluded to by certain works which argue that sales ethics cannot be subjected to the same moral standards as the society (Carr 1968, 143). This is why certain business conducts their sales or package their sales programme as moral in the guise of caring yet in the back on their mind is super profits. In this regard, the aim of this section will be to affirm or refute through reviews and case examples whether sales is oxymoron by applying two contradictory concepts or not. According to Roman and Munera (2005, 473), why sales people are under focus in ethical criticism relates to the experiences people have had with them. “Sales & Marketing Management survey of 200 sales managers revealed that 49 per cent of managers say their salespeople have lied on a sales call, 34 per cent say their salespeople have made unrealistic promises on a sales call and 22 per cent say their salespeople have sold products their customers did not need”. Key to the subsequent discourse in relation to ethics is the sales strategy. It is the sales strategy that elicits the reaction whether sales is oxymoron (Abed and Haghighi 2009, 267). Abed and Haghighi (2009, 267 and 268) indicates that there are two critical strategies adopted by the sales people. These are adaptive selling strategy and customer- oriented selling strategy. Liability of the sales person in terms of ethics in sales depends on the strategy adopted. Sales as oxymoron become applicable whereby business organisation package their sales strategy as ethical yet the underlying goal is to reap maximum profit. In this context, Iamandi (2007, 6) observes that “the Social Responsibility of business is to increase its profits”. This statement is the greatest pointer that sales ethics is oxymoron. For instance, McDonald’s is one of the leading dealers in fast food industry. The consumption of fast foods has consequently, led to increase of high cases of malnutrition. The increase in malnutrition is becoming a great threat to global health. This is not because people do not have enough food but because people have become careless in what they eat. Fast foods have been known to cause a variety of health conditions. This includes, weakened immune systems, destabilized blood sugar levels, retardation of metabolic rates as well as increased levels of bad cholesterol and increased chances of high blood pressure. The conditions mentioned above consequently lead to a number of human ailments. These lead to risks of contracting stroke due to high blood pressure, type 11 diabetes as a result of irregularities in blood sugar levels and heart attacks as a result of high cholesterol levels. This is in addition cancer of the colon as a result of its inability to properly process waste products and other frequent illnesses due to a weakened immune system which also increases the risk of contracting other cancers due to low levels of antioxidants (Kiess, Claude and Martin 2004, 98). Despite of this realisation, how do the McDonald’s sales people respond so as to sustain their organisation in terms of units sold over a period of time? It is noted that they “reacted with menu additions, ingredient changes and increased transparency”. In response to super size me, super size menu was abolished, all white meet and salads were included (Brannon, Bongiovanni and Hall 2010, 431). While they were successful at protecting their reputation and sales, this isn’t ethical dealing since the sales people at McDonald’s know the impact of fast food on individuals’ health yet they go and repackage the same so to encourage consumption. This shows that sales ethics is an oxymoron. The other case example is that of DeBeers. The company used to control the global trade of diamond through their supply driven approach. By then, they produced 45% of global rough diamonds, but sold 80% of the global sales. During this period, they dictate trends in the market in terms of prices and whom to sell to. Nevertheless, this global dominance has changed as result of myriad of factors. One of these was the emergence that they were part of the blood diamond in Angola and Sierra Leone (Reardon 2006). To overcome this, the sales people come up with Kimberly certification programme to convince their customers that their business is clean yet some chunk of their uncut diamond is still coming from these countries (Cadieux, 2005). Conclusion The aim of the paper was to establish if sales ethics is an oxymoron. The paper established that sales people apply contradictory statements so as to attract customers which constitute unethical practice. The case of McDonald’s and the case of DeBeers highlights this concern. Thus, the paper affirms the observation that sales ethics is an oxymoron. References Abed, Moghareh Ghazaleh and Mohammad Haghighi. 2009. “The effect of selling strategies on sales performance.” Business Strategy Series 10(5): 266-282. DOI 10.1108/17515630910989169. Abratt, Russell, Michael Bendixen and Karen Drop. 1999. “Ethical perceptions of South African retailers: management and sales personnel.” International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 27(2): 91-104. Bennett, Christopher. 2010. What is this thing called ethics? Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Carr, Albert. 1968. “Is business bluffing ethical?” Harvard Business Review 46(1): 143-153. Collins, John W. 1994. "Is business ethics an oxymoron?" Business Horizons 37(5): 1-8. Danielle, Cadieux. 2005. “DeBeers and the Global Diamond Industry,” Ivey Case Study No. 9B05M040. Evans, Martin. 2003. “The relational oxymoron and personalisation pragmatism.” Journal of Consumer Marketing 20(7): 665-685. DOI 10.1108/07363760310506193. Iamandi, Irina. 2007. “Corporate social responsibility and social responsiveness in a global business environment: a comparative theoretical approach.” Romanian Economic Journal 23: 1-16. Kate, Reardon. 2006. “Guilt Free Diamonds Sparkle Brighter for Ethical Shoppers,” The Times, June 17, 2006. Kiess, Wieland, Marcus Claude & Wabitsch Martin. 2004. Obesity in Children and Adolescent. Basel: S. Karger AG. Roman, Sergio and Jose Luis Munera. 2005. “Determinants and consequences of ethical behaviour: an empirical study of salespeople.” European Journal of Marketing 39(5/6): 473- 495. DOI 10.1108/03090560510590674. Sunita. 2005. Politics, Ethics and Social Responsibility of Business. New Delhi: Paragon Books. Wood, Graham. 1995. “Ethics at the purchasing/ sales interface: an international perspective.” International Marketing Review 12(4): 7-19. Wood, Graham. “Ethics at the sales-purchasing interface: a case of double standards.” Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science 1, no. 3 (1995): 21-38. Read More