In Selling: Thou Shalt Not Disparage the Competition

It's true. There are not many things I am adamant about. I don't really mind which sales tool you use to track your customer and prospective customer relationships (although I have a scientific way to help you with that), and I don't care what you look like, or what you sell - but I do care that you have strong ethics and morals when it comes to being a professional in selling. Even if you call yourself "business owner" - if you are getting people excited about your goods and services to the point that they come to work for you or they exchange dollars for goods, you ARE a professional in selling.

Bashing the competition verbally or any other way is one of the worst things you can do. It is something that will directly equate to lost sales and lack of growth. I've talked about this before, and will talk about it again. Putting others down, whether they be family members or "competition" - or neighbors or customers just costs you.

When I hear someone gossiping or disparaging someone else, I know that they may do the same about anyone, including me. So as a prospective customer or client, I immediately have less trust and respect for you as a seller if that is my impression.

Besides, if you have the mindset that people are truly doing the best they can at any given moment, you don't need to gossip or disparage at all - that area is simply removed from your frame of reference - then you can re-focus and prioritze higher value ideas to be thinking about.