Journey → When is Wrong, Wrong?
It wasn’t so long ago that I worked for a company, in sales. We sold a product to help other companies develop their own sales. The call was easy enough to make. No secretaries to fight through. We could get straight to the decision maker to present the product offering. It included the promise of increased sales, guaranteed results or money back, and cancel at any time.
Most prospects were wise, sensing the too good to be true nature of the product. There were of course a few that took the bait. I remember the cheers of elation getting those first sales. As with any sales job, the competitiveness and thirst for customers was strong. As such, the quality of the product gradually increased. The ease with which they could get their money back was exaggerated, as was the immanence of all the future business they’d be passing up. A certain amount of lying was needed to move this product.
These tactics are part of all sales. To large degree, it’s accepted and understood to be part of the game. It usually works out in the end since many if not most companies provide valuable services to their customers. At times customers just need a little encouragement to get over their hesitation to commit to buying. For better or worse, these little lies and half truths keep the economy churning.
Those of us who made it past the first week slowly started to cotton on to the system at this company. They would hire about 20 new sales people at a time. Half would quit over the first month. The others would trickle out over time. A few would be long timers enduring like calcified fixtures. They were icons. Most would manage to bring in a few customers before their exodus, sometimes two or three a day.
As we rounded the first week and began to learn more about how things worked, each sales person realized that they were a clog in a system that cheated customers. The money back guarantee didn’t really work that way. And the product very rarely performed as advertised. We were hired since we sounded trustworthy and were able to push junk on the market. Then the company would attempt to keep as much money as possible, while avoiding lawsuits in the fine print.
By the time I called it quits I had just over a dozen sales. I feel guilty for each and every one. I had wonderful conversations with these people and they decided to cast caution to the wind and risk trusting someone. About a week later I typically received a call back stating that they weren’t happy with the service, that I let them down, and that they wanted their money back. I doubt any of them got a refund.
Working there made me question my own responsibility in being a part of something that is inherently dishonest. All I was doing was selling the product my managers told me to sell. And all customer support did was retain profits on behalf of the company. And management was just setting up a business model to maintain the fiscal prospects of the company. I don’t think any one person set out to sell junk to the customer. It just happened that way.
I’m not sure where the answer lies. Some would say, what’s right for you is right for you, and it’s different for every person. Others would say, too bad so sad for the customer. Every product in every market has shortcomings. At best it will agitate customers. In worse situations people really get an unfair deal. Is a gun or bomb maker morally responsible for innocent deaths? Most would say no, but most would also say they wouldn’t choose to make a gun or bomb that would be used for that purpose. What if they know the buyer will use it as such? If one were to take an extremely conservative stance, you could never work anywhere doing anything. Maybe mowing the grass somewhere. To everyone else, I suppose there is some truth to everyone having to answer that question for themselves. As for me, I’m happy not to be putting my name on a product that doesn’t work.
