The Undermining of Free Enterprise
 
“We’ve got our financial records in good order, for the most part, we think, and we’ve had them audited by an outside firm, whom we’ve paid and advised to tell you that everything is above board.”  Is this the new disclaimer that should be the norm for the annual corporate report?  And what, might you ask has this to do with sales and marketing?
 
There are those in the world who are more than eager to point out that the free market economy so integral to the free enterprise system is being fed by corporate greed, corruption and weakened by scandal in the America we know today.  I’d like to argue that the free enterprise system is being strangled by corporate greed, and must be restored with the honesty, integrity and other values that the system was first built on.
 
So, what does this have to do with sales and marketing?  Our association was founded on principles, five of them to be exact.  Principle number 5 is “The support of free enterprise.”  It was undoubtedly included as one of the founding principles, recognizing that without the free enterprise system, our modus operandi as sales and marketing professionals would be vastly different.  What does free enterprise mean?  If we define it according to the free market economy, it means that every individual has the right to engage in enterprise, own their own business or be gainfully employed with a minimum of government intervention and red tape.  Sadly, the corruption and scandal in some of this free market economy’s major enterprises is the very thing that will destroy it, by simple virtue of the fact that our society will be willing to condone more government bureaucracy in order to thwart the rampant growth of greed.
 
Free enterprise was established on a basis of trust.  The trust of individuals in the free market economy, not unlike the trust that is established when a relationship is developed between a selling organization and its customers.  Selling organizations that abuse that trust by taking advantage of consumer ignorance, or who veil the truth in order to convince the market that inferior products or services are valuable, operate outside the creed of professional sales and marketing ethics.  Similarly, enterprises that abuse the public trust by inflating share value through improper financial reporting cause deterioration in the perceived value of free enterprise.  Both types of abuse erode consumer confidence and build a market base throughout the economy that is wary of making commitments to transactions that are the very life blood of economic stability and growth.
 
As sales and marketing professionals, we have a major responsibility in helping to build consumer confidence by conducting our business in the highest ethical manner, valuing the relationship with our customer to the utmost degree.  As the trite saying goes “Nothing happens until somebody sells something”, but we can improve on that by saying “Nothing good happens until somebody sells something using the basic principles of honesty and integrity throughout the transaction.”