It Only Takes One Bad Apple…. Right?

All too frequently I have arrived at a customer’s home only to be confronted with hostility. Not hostility because I’ve done anything wrong but hostility because at some point in the weeks, months or years before me they had been on the receiving end of high-pressure fraudulent tradesman and scams.

I wholeheartedly understand their tension and can’t help but feel for them that they have had to experience this. It breaks my heart to hear some of the stories that I am told. The individuals who have fraudulently taken these customers money and reduced their self confidence are the very same people who are tarnishing the direct sales industry with their same dirty brush on a daily basis. It is hard work to convince someone that you are not like the person before you when they could well have initially introduced themselves to the customer in much the same way as I did. So, what can we do to change this?

The direct sales industry is saturated with self-employed agents who earn a living from the commission of their sales. If these sales agents don’t return a high enough rate of sales from their appointments, they are thrown out the back door of the company. It is a perpetual revolving door that for many is powered by fear, greed and vanity.

Appointments cost a direct sales company money, regardless of whether they are generated through digital marketing campaigns or good old-fashioned door canvassing there is an overhead that can only be covered by a sale. Salespeople handle this pressure in many ways but unfortunately some choose to handle it the wrong way. Often the pressure to return a sale is so overwhelmingly great that it pushes an unscrupulous salespersons conscience to one side to reveal a darkness within them that blights an otherwise legitimate and honest industry. Without a good conscience, the dishonest removal of a customer’s money is also often at the expense of their trust, faith and worse still their dignity.

The generation more likely to experience these questionable sales tactics and fraudulent scams are the elderly and those considered to be vulnerable adults. Over my years in the industry I’ve heard it and seen it all first-hand. From implying that emergency work needs to be carried out such as broken ridge tiles that could fall at any moment to perfectly good Upvc that is apparently ‘fatiguing’, there is no end to the inventiveness of their lies. Fictitious discounts to sign on the day, calling their boss to get a special rate or just plain guilt inducing statements that they’ll lose their job if the customer doesn’t buy from them have become the norm and are now commonplace in just about every town and city across this world.

When I’m sat with a prospective customer the last thing I think about is money. The only thing on my mind is making sure that what I sell suits my customer, that they are happy, and that they are able to make an educated and informed decision on whether they would like to buy from me or not. If I have done my job correctly, explained everything clearly, taken care of my due diligence obligations, and asked for the order respectfully then I can hand on heart say that the enjoyment of creating another customer for the company I represent along with providing my customer with a quality product is what I go to work for. I am self employed, my income is dependent on commission, and I’m under no illusion that there would unlikely be a job for me if I didn’t return sales from my appointments. But would I ever dare lie to or disrespect somebody in their own home for personal gain? Not a chance!

So, is it really the industry or is it the individual?

My trade is making friends, that’s all the sales industry is about. People buy from people they like. I genuinely like to listen to people, to hear about their lives, their careers, their memories, the love they have for their children and pets and often their losses, but I also love what I sell, I admire the company that I represent, I believe in my product and I know deep down that if a customer doesn’t buy from me that they’re taking an uncertain risk with someone else. I don’t make friends with a prospective customer just because I want the sale, I make friends with a prospective customer because I care. I don’t believe for one minute that I’m of the minority, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the harvest.

It is my opinion that we should look to nurture rather than nature for the answer. That is, we should look at the individual and not the industry. But that doesn’t mean that we should just accept the problem because we can attribute blame.

So how do we begin to discuss regulating this area of the industry?

Many years ago, FENSA, an organisation that regulates the standard of Upvc and glazing installations and their installers, was introduced to the industry as a voluntary scheme. It was fair, clear and set a working standard that many companies now exist by. Companies were not forced to affiliate themselves with this organisation and still have that choice to this day but what emerged from this was a standard that a high majority of the general public now put their trust in.

If sales agents within the direct sales industry were asked to adopt a similar voluntary scheme, then we might just start to make a change. And if we can start to make a change then we might just have a chance of cleaning up the unscrupulous and fraudulent individuals who have tarnished an otherwise legitimate and convenient way for consumers to buy.

A central number for a customer to call to confirm that the person stood on their doorstep wearing personably identifiable photo identification is of proven good character with a reference to the name of the company who they represent. How great would this be?

It is my proposal, and with great enthusiasm I must add, that I commit to look further into this idea with an aim to constructing and detailing a working standard, managed by an independent organisation, designed to protect consumers from fraudulent sales agents. I’m not saying that I’ll find this easy and I’m sure to come up against many who would oppose my suggestion, but I care too much to do nothing at all.

I’m firm in my belief that the issue lies solely within the individual and not within the industry and I don’t believe that I’m biased in this belief. If a salesperson is of good character in other areas of their life, then it’s fair to assume that they would behave similarly in a professional capacity.

I am a realist. I understand the pressures that direct salespeople are under, but I also understand humanity and respect and I’m afraid that for those individuals who ‘s thoughts and feelings conflict with my own my message is clear. The fact that you feel this way is proof and evidence enough that there’s a need for the public to have this level of protection.

I would be extremely interested to read your thoughts and comments to this article and would very much encourage you to publicly share it through Twitter using

#change @undercoverhome