What does it mean to sell ethically as a social enterprise? My journey to aligned sales.
Why ethical, values-led sales matter?
Sales is the backbone to any business and social enterprise is no different. Without sales you have no revenue, and without cash it’s very difficult to deliver on your social and/or environmental mission, as well as plan for the future.
That’s why I focus so much of my time helping social entrepreneurs and enterprises develop their aligned sales strategies, so they know exactly what they want and need to do to create consistent income in their business.
More recently I’ve looked at my own business, Share Impact, and asked myself what does aligned sales really look like to me? And what does it mean to sell ethically as a social entrepreneur or social enterprise?
I think these are important questions because as value-driven business owners, our ethics and values obviously matter. We care passionately about doing things right and in aligned way to who we are and how we want the world to be.
I also believe that many social entrepreneurs and social enterprise founders struggle with sales because they are trying to apply a sales model that’s outdated, or doesn’t align to their values and ethics.
In my experience many social entrepreneurs perceive (traditional) sales and sales approaches as pushy, persuasive, manipulative, even aggressive sometimes. We often don’t like that it can focus on tapping in to our fears, a sense of scarcity or creating false urgency.
Why? Because in everything else we do, we don’t operate in this way.
Generally we share values of prosperity, positivity, openness, honesty, transparency, integrity, abundance.
We don’t want to do sales because we don’t want to be pushy, or manipulative or chase people for the sale. But that’s because this doesn’t align to who we really are.
Values and ethics to embed in your sales approach
We believe in…
Conscious consumerism i.e. only buying what we truly need (and sometimes want) in ways that doesn’t create harm the planet, individuals or communities. So it doesn’t make sense to approach sales from a “mass market” …buy, buy, buy perspective. We only want to sell what’s needed to those who want it.
Transparency …and therefore operating in a way that’s truly inline with our mission, values and how we say we’re going to operate. It doesn’t make sense to hide the price until the last minute; or only share value with those who buy.
Honesty… so not inflating the potential results and benefits. We take time to capture and measure the difference we make and report on this regularly so customers can see what we do.
Being in service… to the people and communities we want to support and provide benefit to whether they be beneficiaries and / or customers).
Finding an aligned, ethical and value-led approach to sales
Importantly, sales doesn’t have to be pushy, manipulative or aggressive. Just because that’s the only way you’ve seen or experienced it, doesn’t mean it’s the only way.
You get to design your own sales approach and ethos. Your sales strategy can be aligned to your values and the way you want to operate your business. In fact it makes sense to do this.
I’ve been on this journey myself, feeling uncomfortable about sales (because I was trying to do them in a way that weren’t aligned to my values) to changing the way I think and approach sales, so they are aligned to who I am and how I want to operate my business.
To me this means:
Always being upfront and honest about what’s included in the offer
Always being open and sharing the price upfront - what’s the point in hiding it?
Acknowledging there are those who are ready-to-buy and those who will take longer, or won’t be ready until later on in their journey. So I focus on speaking to ready-to-by clients and customers, and stop trying to persuade people who aren’t ready or aren’t able to buy.
I recognise that not everyone needs or wants what I have to offer, so I stop trying to speak to everyone and forget about mass-market approaches.
Relationships and knowing who I’m working with matters to me, so I take the time to get to know people, with no expectations but purely because this is how I choose to run my business.
I do the work (integrity). I don’t teach, mentor or coach on things I haven’t done, gone through or learnt myself first. I don’t promote results or benefits just to make a sale.
Being open and honest when I’m inviting someone on a sales call. I tell them that’s what it is and I check that they’re ok with that. I also explain what a sales call is, so they know there is no requirement or pressure for them to buy but that I will talk them through what offers I have that could help them get the results or solutions they say they want/need. (There’s no getting on calls to “help someone out” with an underlying tactic of actually selling to them).
How can you create sales that feel aligned to who you are and how you want to operate your business?
Think about your values. What’s important to you and the way you want to run your business?
How do you want to be known as a brand? This can also help identify values and approaches you do and don’t want to apply.
What are you doing currently that just doesn’t sit right? How else could you approach this, or do it differently (in a more aligned way)?
How would you like sales to be? If you know you don’t want them to be a particular way, have you ever thought about how you would like them to be? If sales were easy, fun and in alignment, what would this mean and look like?
If it helps, think about experiences you’ve had as a customer where you’ve enjoyed the sales experience. What made this different? What did the company or brand do to attract, nurture and close the sale?
How do you want your customers to feel along the sales journey? How can you enable and support this through your sales approach?
For example, I want people to buy with ease, which means they don’t have any questions, they know the offer is right for them and they’re excited to make the purchase. This means I think about all the questions they might ask and answer these on the sales page; I make the process of purchasing super simple; I share past clients / customers results so they can see if this is what they want / need too, and I only sell to those who actually want / need what I’m offering.
I hope this helps you recognise there isn’t just one way to create sales, you can decide how you want your sales strategy to be and align this with the values that matter to you as a brand and business owner.
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