Ethics and Persuasion

Have you ever considered the ethics of your marketing department or sales team? After all, they are in the business of persuading customers that there is a need for your product or service and that yours is the one people should buy. I have been studying some experts in sales, marketing and persuasion over the past couple of months and they have shared a concept that I think is very powerful. They have stated, “If a salesperson truly believes in their product then they are ethically obligated to the customer to make sure they buy the product.” This makes sense if the product is truly outstanding as allowing the customer to go on living without it would be a disservice.

So what does this have to do with persuasion and safety? Simple, we have a product, “working, playing and living safely.” We know with certainty that when people are persuaded to make the choice to behave safely they will improve their life in many ways. We know in fact that when we are successful in “selling” safety people go home each and every day to the people they love and the ones who love them.

The point of this whole discussion is to remind you that you have the ethical obligation to aggressively sell others on working and behaving safely. To do anything less is to fail those we are there to serve. The question I have for you is, “How much have you done to improve your sales effectiveness?” Have you ever taken a course in sales or persuasion? I am sure you have taken many classes in safety and the details of how to work safely but what good is that without the ability to get others to take action. This is proven out when someone is injured and upon studying the incident we find the person knew the correct or safe way to do the job. They weren’t lacking knowledge, we trained them well, but because we weren’t trained in the skills of persuasion they didn’t take action and use what we taught them.

All this is aimed at your realizing how much importance persuasion has in our business of safety. I will, in the following issues, let you know what you need to do in order to improve your persuasive skills.

Yours in service,
John Drebinger
Office 209-745-9419 or 1-800-588-9419