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What integrity really means in sales. Hey, don't think for a moment that integrity means you can't be tough with customers or you're going to crave to every customer request false. Today I'm going to give you 10 benefits from what you can expect from selling with integrity. And the show begins right now. You're listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now here's your host. So what does selling with integrity really look like? Integrity means you treat the customer the way they need to. Ooh, this is going to spin it around on head. It means being firm. It means calling out the issues. It's about creating maximum value. Hey, before I get to the 10 benefits, let me share with you three things you need to do first. One, it's much more than honesty. It's about consistency and alignment. You see, saying what needs to be said, it's not really what's easy. When the customer is wrong, you need to call them out. How do you do? How you do it is really key. It's about realizing that it's not about winning the battle and losing the war. It's the opposite. Yes, there are times that you need to do call the baby ugly. So here's the deal. Okay. The customer is just not right with their thinking. You've got to sit there and say it and I'll share with you in the benefits how you're going to go about doing it. Because again, you connect it to a story. You connect it to a situation that you had with another customer where you were able to navigate them through it. Do not call them out on it directly. Reference something else and it becomes a much softer way for them. But this is how you demonstrate consistency and alignment because you don't sit there and bounce back and forth with with whichever way the customer is going. No. 2, it's about long term relationship over a short term win. Okay, now this is key because here's the thing. If you're going to sell with integrity, there are going to be times when you are not going to be able to close a deal and you need that deal for the quarter. This is where you have to really understand if you're going to play the long game. It's about having a full pipeline. You can't ever allow yourself to not prospect. You see, selling with integrity is also about you demonstrating integrity to yourself. You see, when you are living integrity centered, you are prospecting continuously because you know you have the ability to help Others see and achieve what they didn't think was possible. You see, doing so, it's going to allow you to make a difference in more people. And that's really. It's what's going to drive you to really prospect more. Okay, so let me get to the last piece and I'm going to get to 10 benefits. Trust is built in small amounts. You really have to realize this. We tend to put all of our focus on the big things. When it's the little things that people see far more often. You see, it shows up in everything. When we show up late for a sales call, we don't get a response back to a customer on time. We don't. Those are the little things that on the surface you might say, oh, they mean nothing, but they mean a lot. You have to absolutely demonstrate, because here's what I found. Selling with integrity is not a light switch that you turn on or off. It is absolutely part of your DNA. And that means you do it in everything that you do. Okay, now let's get to the 10 benefits. When you sell with integrity, number one, first one on the list, it's about more referrals. You are going to get more referrals because you are a salesperson. Customers value, customers see worthwhile dealing with. They, they view as having absolute trust in you. And what do they do? They in turn cheer you with others. The number one way, when I hear people say, oh, I sell with integrity, and then I ask them, how many referrals do you get? And they say, well, you know, I just don't get many referrals. You know what? It's not showing. It's not doing it. I'm calling an ace, an ace and a spade. A spade. When you are selling with integrity and putting the customer first, you're going to start getting referrals and you'll get more and more. Number two, it's higher margins now. Higher margins. This is not ripping off the customer. No, contrary, contrary. It's about delivering more value. Because what happens is when you sell with integrity, the customer respects you that much more. They understand value. They absolutely see the price point that you put on the table as being the right price point. They are not as predestined to negotiate with you. So what happens is you wind up with higher margins. Which takes me to number three, it's fewer discounts. You see, if I race to the close without really understanding the value proposition, without really demonstrating integrity to you, the customer is naturally going to say, I want a lower price. And you're Going to wind up having to discount more. So when I, when I sell with integrity and I talk about it all in my book, integrity first selling, if you haven't picked up a copy, grab a copy of it. It's going to help you achieve more sales with fewer discounts. Number four, customers who buy more. It's repeat sales. Because here's the whole thing. If you delight the customer once, they are very likely to come back and buy more. This is absolutely critical. If you're an account manager, you're managing an account. I want you to really ask yourself this question. What is the percentage of business that you're getting because of the product that you sell versus the product of business versus the percent of business that you're getting because of who you are? Challenging, isn't it? Chances are if you're an account manager, there are competitors out there who could deliver really a very similar product. And this places more need on your job. This is why I say whether or not you sell transactional, whether or not you sell repeat, whether or not. This is prospecting, account manager, wherever you are in the sales process, you have to realize that you are far more valuable than you realize. And as a result, customers will buy more. And they also pass your name off to other people in their company. You see, it's really all about repeat sales. This is why I see in some industries, people have been in the business 25 and 30 years, they do zero prospecting. They do now. I, I wish they would. I wish they would, but they don't because they've got such a strong book of business, because they've been working with these customers for so long that they stay with them. We see this in financial services a lot. We see this in insurance a lot. But what I'm saying here is this. Customers buy more when they place value. So stop and ask yourself this question. If you have a, without a doubt, a great product or great service and you're not getting more sales or repeat sales from customers, guess what? It's you. It's you. I, I'm going to call it out on you. You got to really question what is the level of integrity that you're demonstrating to customers? And go back to those three things I said at the beginning. Are you being consistent in alignment in terms of what it is that you're communicating to customers? Are you two looking at the long game, in other words, not trying to play short game, to close a sale, to make a number for a quarter and three, Are you demonstrating integrity in the small things, not just the big things. Okay, number number five, fewer post sale issues that cut into your margin. What do I mean by this? I see this a lot, especially on new customers. If you are not demonstrating integrity, you wind up selling something into a customer. And then there is what I call margin creep, margin slip. I should say project creep margin slip. Because what happens is you wind up having set a level of expectations with the customer to close the sale that really don't match what you can deliver. I see this with customer service departments all the time and onboarding teams and sales enablement groups and so forth where they will report back. There's tremendous amount of after the sale nursing that has to go on because of false expectations delivered by the salesperson to close the sale. Big problem. Number six, less competition. Yes, it's simple because customers won't talk to others. Here's the deal. If you have a reputation for selling with integrity, it is amazing at how there's less competition. I saw this a couple years ago. I was looking to buy a new car and there was one car dealer that had been highly recommended to me. That was the only one we went to peer eat. Less competition, less competition for the salesperson because customers won't talk to others. This is absolute key. Now you think about this, you think about how this is going to reduce the amount of time that you set bets that you spend in the selling process. It's huge. It's significant. Number six or number seven, I should say, you're going to achieve market share growth. What do I mean by market share growth? Here's what. More customers are dealing with you and they're buying more in less competition. What does that mean? You're just naturally going to grow your market share. And this is especially true in difficult times. One of the things that, that I find so unique is whenever it gets to be a difficult time in an industry, a lot of salespeople begin shutting down. Those who have integrity don't. And what happens? They wind up building market share. Number eight, you're going to get early wins from new products and innovations. What do I mean by this? Here's the thing. You're going to have a new product or service that's going to come out from your company. Great. And you're going to share it with customers. And customers are going to be much faster to buy into it and accept it because of the level of respect, the level of integrity that you've created for them. You're also going to find situations that maybe you do a lot of work with other vendors who Supply you with things that you in turn, you know, you're a distributor or you're an OEM coming. And what's interesting is when you are demonstrating integrity, people like that are going to bring you new opportunities. You're going to wind up having new innovations coming to you that you can in turn share with your customers. A huge win. What does this do? This puts you on the front end of growth opportunities. Number nine. It's less stress. Less stress. And it's more fun in what you get to do. Now, I want to build on this for a moment because here's a simple thing. When you are selling with integrity, it is amazing at how your level of stress drops. And what does that do? That increases your level of momentum. It increases your level of motivation, it increases your adrenaline to where you actually wind up spending more time selling because you're enjoying it so much. It is absolutely amazing. I see people who practice integrity selling all the time, and it is amazing at how much more, how much more they get done in any given day. Yeah, number 10, it's a bigger paycheck. Selling with integrity compounds. You see, the more you demonstrate it, the more valuable you become. Let me build on this for a second. You know, it's interesting. You put money into a bank account and it generates interest and you leave it there for years and years and years and the interest just continues to grow. That's compounded interest. Let me tell you something. Integrity compounds also, because the more you demonstrate integrity, what happens is people begin talking. Each one of the previous nine things I shared comes to fruition and you are more beneficial as a salesperson. Hey, selling with integrity is absolutely. I don't think it's an option. I think it's an essential and it's going to change how you sell dramatically. I talk about this in my book Integrity Focus. First selling, I want you to grab a copy of it, would you? And hey, if you're listening to this podcast, leave me a review on your favorite podcast app, would you? It's absolutely critical because here's the thing, the algorithms of all the podcasts, they, they, they, they push it out more if they're seeing reviews on that podcast, whether it be Spotify, Apple, Music, whatever. I'm Mark Hunter, the sales hunter. Two episodes a week. One like this single topic where I dive in. Second episode is where I have a subject matter expert reason I do the podcast. One simple reason to help you see and achieve what you didn't think was possible. Do me a favor, grab the book Integrity First Selling and I'll see you on the next episode. Great selling.