Question

You are an outside salesperson working for a payroll company providing payroll and tax services to area businesses. In an attempt to stimulate sales and provide incentive to the sales reps, your manager has put together a contest in which the rep generating the most money by the end of the quarter wins a weekend get-a-way for two. You would really love to win the contest, and you mention it to a few of your top customers. One of your customers tells you that she can help you win by getting her husband’s company to sign on to your service. Her husband owns one of the biggest contracting companies in the area, and his business would certainly help you win the contest. She asks a favor for doing this; she would like you to provide her with some information on a few of her competitors and what they pay their employees. You know that this information is confidential, but she promises she will keep it to herself. She only wants to make sure she is paying her employees what the competition is paying. You’ve known her for a long time, and you know she would not disclose the information you provide her to anyone else. Identify the ethical dilemma and who are the stakeholders affected by this situation? What strategey or concept(s) from your learning would you apply to effectively handle this situation? Justify your reasoning.

Answer 1

Sharing other client specifics and details is not ethical in business as usual scenarios. In this situation, salesperson would like to get the new business for the interest of company as well as some self-benefit from that. None the less this still do not justify sharing other client details here.

One of the ways to handle this situation is to help the customer understand that

1. Its not ethical for him to share any client confidential information. She (the customer) would expect the same for her internal data.

2. As a firm, they help all clients and contract employees to get the best deal and the salesperson should assure her that she got the market standard deal on her contracts.