Survey shocker: Research reveals salespeople have "strong ethics"

Despite their negative depiction, UK salespeople are concerned about principles, ethics and accountability, according to new research.

A new YouGuv survey, commissioned by sales performance mangement company Xactly, found 55% of 196 sales professionals claimed they would leave a job if they had issues with the product or service they were selling.

Additionally, nearly a third said they would leave if they felt colleagues were behaving unethically with women more likely to leave than men.

In comparison to previous generations of salespeople, 45% of Generation X (those born before 1978) considered their generation as more ethical than Generation Y (those born afterwards).

Christopher Cabrera, CEO at Xactly, said: “Selling underpins business competitiveness – it’s a role many of us play at some point in our lives. So why would those who have chosen sales as a career be any less ethical than other professions?  In fact, salespeople are even more accountable for their actions because their performance is often directly linked to compensation and therefore tightly monitored.”