Welcome to the political season . . . a time of countless local, state, and national elections. It’s also a time when politicians make promises they will never keep. What else is new? As the noted Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen once said, “Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken.”
Read more...
Latest Content
- Good Deeds Build Great Businesses
- Kept Promises Make Great Reputations
- How to Leverage Your Ethics in Marketing: Part 2
- Should You Leverage Your Ethics in Marketing? Part 1
- Five Benefits of Ethical Leadership
- The Case for Suitability: It's Time!
- Bye-Bye Yahoo CEO: The Ethics of Resume Fraud
- Eight Steps to Hiring Honest Employees
- No Excuses
- Rules Rule
Content Tags
Sales and Marketing Techniques Customer Relations Reputation Management Ethics in Small Business Ethical Business Practice Credibility Marketing Compliance Errors and Omissions Insurance Marketing Tips for Financial Advisors Errors and Omissions Prevention Strategies Transparent Marketing Credibility through Ethical Business Practices Reputation Branding Ethics and Compliance Guidelines Reputation Marketing Ethics in Sales and Marketing Online Reputation Management Business Ethics Ethical Marketing Practices
- Business Ethics (18)
- Compliance (1)
- Credibility Marketing (1)
- Credibility through Ethical Business Practices (5)
- Customer Relations (1)
- Errors and Omissions Insurance (1)
- Errors and Omissions Prevention Strategies (3)
- Ethical Business Practice (17)
- Ethical Marketing Practices (13)
- Ethics and Compliance Guidelines (3)
- Ethics in Sales and Marketing (12)
- Ethics in Small Business (7)
- Marketing Tips for Financial Advisors (4)
- Online Reputation Management (1)
- Reputation Branding (1)
- Reputation Management (2)
- Reputation Marketing (4)
- Sales and Marketing Techniques (2)
- Transparent Marketing (1)
Content Archive
Business Ethics
How to Leverage Your Ethics in Marketing: Part 2
Harry Lew - Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The Case for Suitability: It's Time!
National Ethics Association - Wednesday, May 16, 2012
No Excuses
National Ethics Association - Thursday, March 15, 2012
But even though no one is surprised when politicians break their promises, it still is unfortunate. That’s because broken promises breed jaded citizens. And when a country’s citizens become jaded, they lose faith in their future. That’s not a good thing.
In much the same fashion, the issue of promises made and kept is important in all areas of business. For example, when a company claims that its widget does X, consumer expect it to actually do X. If it doesn’t, the company will have a big problem on its hands.
Take the financial services industry. Although at a macro level this industry has a good record of keeping its promises, individual advisors sometimes impersonate politicians and make promises they have no business making. A classic case is when they project unrealistic or deceptive performance results. Recently, Business Week shined a spotlight on what it calls “401(k) predators.” These advisors put on seminars for corporate employees on how to retire early using their existing 401(k) savings. Problem is, to lure clients, they project unrealistic investment returns (14% in one case) and promote aggressive withdrawals from 401(k) accounts. Can’t you just see the approaching train wreck?
I can never understand why advisors use unrealistic projections. Since investment asset classes all have a range of reasonable and expected results, which most clients accept, why jeopardize your business by projecting results that teeter on the leading (bleeding?) edge of the bell curve?
Another type of broken promise is when they fail to follow through on commitments made as a financial professional. These are the promises contained in the National Ethics Association Business Integrity Pledge . . . things such as doing comprehensive fact-finding before recommending a solution, fully disclosing their background and product details, and providing ongoing service reviews.
Not following through on these fundamentals can be as damaging as hyping results. That’s because clients feel let down when their advisor says one thing during the sales process and behaves differently afterward. This disconnect, much like a politician’s broken promises, generates ill will—and encourages client defections.
Whatever your industry, keeping promises is fundamental to your success. Here are some fundamental techniques that will help you:
- Never promise something you can’t deliver
- Always under promise and over deliver.
- View your client promises as a sacred trust.
- Get better organized so you don’t forget the promises you made.
If you can do these basic things, you will develop a reputation for being a businessperson of integrity . . . someone whose word outlives the average political promise and pie crust.
How to Deal with Lying Customers
National Ethics Association - Thursday, December 08, 2011
In ancient Greece, the famed philosopher Diogenes walked the daylight streets with a lantern in search of an honest man. In your work as a business professional, do you ever feel the same way . . . that way too many of your customers have lost touch with the truth? If so, you’re not alone. Read more...
Pen Strokes from Hell: How to Sign Documents Safely
National Ethics Association - Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Regarding large bureaucracies, Mother Theresa once said, “So many signatures for such a small heart.” The same could be said for the U.S. banks embroiled in the foreclosure scandal. Haven’t they learned anything since 2008’s financial cataclysm? Read more...
How to Preserve Your “Full Faith and Credit”
National Ethics Association - Wednesday, September 21, 2011
As we write this column, the news is full of dire articles about the impending U.S. default on its loan obligations. The great debate over our budget has us musing about the meaning of the term “full faith and credit” . . . especially how it relates to the ethics of selling in today’s business climate. Read more...
The Last Cowboy: Five Secrets for Staying Independent
National Ethics Association - Friday, August 12, 2011
Many business professionals savor their independence. That’s why corporate employees often go independent as their skill, knowledge, and client list grow. But even as a free agent—a lone cowboy or cowgirl—how independent are you really? Are you subject to the influences of other entities in your professional life? Do you let those influences affect your decisions—and your ethics? Do you let them call all the shots? And most important, can you truly be an independent and unbiased professional when industry “ranchers” with huge stakes in your success brand your hide, but have little ownership of your mistakes? Read more...
Fix Your Lifestyle—or Else!
National Ethics Association - Friday, June 24, 2011
"Mistakes." Now that’s a word that not only describes the Madoff mess (sayonara, Bernie!), but also the recent history of our economy. But the question now is, have all the guilty parties—from the Wall St. titans to the corner mortgage brokers to the Washington politicians to the overly ambitious homebuyers—learned enough from the past to not repeat their mistakes in the future? Read more...
Sharks Swirling: Top Five E&O Prevention Strategies
National Ethics Association - Thursday, May 05, 2011
It’s no secret that 2008 was a financial blood bath. Millions of consumers lost trillions in net worth. People who work in real estate or investment banking have seen their livelihoods sink. And millions more Americans have lost their jobs and with them, their ability to stay afloat financially. Read more...