Sell a service, not your soul
Last week in the middle of a beautiful, sunny, Southern California day, I headed to a grocery store to grab some lunch. As I turned the corner, my heart sank: two charity fundraisers prowled the sidewalk, greeting every pedestrian with a false smile and a cheery request: “spare a minute for the environment?”
If you haven’t seen these folks before…you’re lucky. In the last 10–15 years I’ve noticed an explosion of sidewalk fundraisers who use coercive persuasion techniques to get passerby to sign up for recurring donations to charities. Also, these fundraisers often work for a private company that takes a significant chunk of any funds raised. I’ve had male fundraisers comment on my clothes (nice pants!), my facial expression (smile!) and also follow me to try and get me to donate. This has happened to me in Boston, Washington DC and Santa Monica.
There was only one entrance into the store, and I was hungry, so I steeled myself and kept going, “maybe they’ll leave me alone,” I thought hopelessly, even as a man with a blond ponytail spotted me with a big smile, spread his feet wide to block my way and pointed right at me.
“Hi!” he called to me.
“You’re blocking my way,” I responded and tried to step around him. Of course, not one to take no for an answer (that’s not a good thing, by the way) he stepped over to keep blocking my path, smiling patiently like I was the problem. “This is harassment,” I raised my voice, which got us looks from passerby.
A raised voice, a firm stride — these are tactics I’d learned in self-defense classes to deter sexual assault. So why did I have to use them on a charity fundraiser?
The answer is that the sales methodology deployed by this type of fundraiser— physical intimidation (blocking my way), using false friendliness or charm to get me to feel like I owed him a conversation, typecasting (you don’t have a minute for the environment!?) and discounting my no — these are all tactics meant to get me to do something I don’t want to do. They are all insidious boundary violations and should be treated as such (for more info on these techniques, read The Gift of Fear, by Gavin de Becker — the book is transformative and hammers home the importance of setting and respecting boundaries).
My work at CityGrows involves a lot of sales. I’m constantly reaching out to local governments and talking with staff and elected officials about the work we do, the value of our platform, and generally trying to figure out how we can grow our user base. So I have a lot of empathy for people who make their living selling products and services, especially when they’re pushing a cause I believe in (yes, I care about the environment).
That doesn’t mean I excuse unethical behavior.
The key driver of good sales is a good product or service. Marketing and sales can only do so much for so long with a sub-par offering, and relying on guilt and emotional manipulation is terrible for the long-term brand of your company.
Of course, having a great product doesn’t mean it will sell itself — you still need to get a critical mass of users on board, especially when you’re doing something new and different. I believe in what CityGrows has to offer — our core platform is helps local governments replace paper forms with online processes and payments, but we still have to get the word out to towns and cities.
After this awful, most recent experience with aggressive sales tactics, I sat down to think consciously about my heretofore unwritten guiding principles for ethics in sales. Here’s the list I came up with:
- Offer something valuable — make sure I demonstrate how I can help. CityGrows is available for free even if a town or city hosts an unpaid process on the platform. It’s a way for us to demonstrate our value, build community and draw in paying processes down the road.
- Establish credibility — demonstrate we are reliable and trustworthy with strong references, data points and case studies.
- Less is more —I go easy on the phone calls and intrusive tactics. Polite, personalized emails are how I prefer to build the pipeline. I’ll pick up the phone as well, but I think cold calling is overrated.
- Pleasant persistence — follow up, but always make folks feel comfortable and respected. Never use shame, intimidation or high pressure tactics to close a sale. When someone says no, I thank them, ask for feedback (if relevant) and make myself scarce.
- Strategize + optimize — find people who need CityGrows the most and go to them first. That way I have the time and energy to craft a personalized message, build out a custom template and spend time on client education.
- Ethics — be transparent about the costs, benefits and limitations of the product. CityGrows is software; the most important element of any government organization are the people, both the constituents and the staff behind the counter. We can do a lot for a city, but we‘re a tool for employees, not a replacement for skilled labor.
So far, this above board approach seems to be working. Many of the cities we reach out to are responsive and my pipeline feels satisfyingly full. Not only that, I’m enjoying getting to know so many folks working in local government and learning about the challenges they face in their jobs. It reinforces my belief that there’s a way to thrive while also doing the right thing.
Speaking of which, after successfully dodging the dodgy fundraiser on my way in the store, I was dismayed when I came out a few minutes later to find him waiting for me.
“Let’s try this again!” he said, falling into step beside me and ignoring the fact that less than 20 minutes earlier I had given him a firm no. I didn’t bother to respond this time, I just snapped his picture and went on my way.
I’m curious to know what you think about ethics in sales. How can we be both ethical and effective in our roles to drive growth?
