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September 2002 Track Selling Times Integrity Pays
Integrity Pays:
"The Importance of Being Up-front"
by Jay Youell
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(From July 1998 Track Selling Times)
Jay Youell is vice president of sales for Magellan Behavioral Health, a Columbus, MD firm managing healthcare benefits for mental health and substance abuse. Jay's seen others in his field violate their sales integrity with damaging consequences:
"This concerns a rival company several years ago. A Nebraska customer asked for certain hospitals and doctors to be added to his health care contract. Six months later, the company noticed that the added hospitals and doctors were charging substantially more than their usual providers. Without consulting the client, they dropped them. People were then unable to continue with those
specific healthcare professionals. End result: the company was fired, losing a multi-million contract."
Can you give a positive application of the integrity concept?
"One of our Ohio customers was concerned that we were changing our information system midway through his contract. We were faced with the choice of either lying or being up-front. We chose the latter. We also specified an extended time period on the old system with a dollars and cents performance guarantee on the system transfer. This was structured to alleviate concern over data being lost or reports delayed. We, in fact, were offering a rebate if we failed to deliver exactly what was promised. This approach was very much appreciated and the customer decided to buy from us. Since then, everything has gone smoothly."
Why is integrity is so important in sales?
"Everything in selling is built on the foundation of integrity. Without it, it's like having too much water in the concrete when you pour a house's foundation. Put any real weight on it and it crumbles."
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