The basics are the decent principles focused on meeting people's need.
The money earned from this kind of deal is not mercenary's income.
While this may mean a much lesser value, nothing can surpass the fulfillment and the joy of knowing we've done well in they eyes of men and God.
Tony Campolo in his book Everything You've Heard is Wrong tells this story:
In a sales conference sponsored by a large insurance corporation, the executives invited speakers of caliber to share their most successful marketing techniques. The crowd was all ears to the how's of setting up clients, of pushing the right emotional buttons, and of closing a deal while one is ahead. Supposedly the best marketing strategies, the formulas sounded more like techniques manipulating people.
Campolo himself was given the task of ending the day with a motivational talk that could psyche up the sales team to get the job done. He surprised everyone with his opening words, "Everything you've heard today is wrong!"
Disbelief ran across the faces of the company's executives.
Campolo said people are not things to be manipulated with the right techniques. People are not creatures to be used to further our own economic ends. People are sacred because the eternal God has chosen to make each one of them his home. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect.
Campolo went on to say that, far too frequently, we relate to people as though they were objects instead of subjects. People in the marketplace deserve something better. He continued, saying, "You don't have to manipulate people if you're selling something they really need. All you have to do is show them the seriouness of their need and then demonstrate that what you have to offer can meet that need."
Campolo couldn't be more right. We live in a secular world that concerns itself with nothing more important than meeting quotas and closing sales. We have considered these more pressing than meeting a person's need.
While I believe in the importance of sales conferences and seminars, these should not be held at the expense of making us emotionless, money-grabbing mercenaries out to manipulate innocent victims who happen to be the consumers.
A cursory look at the country's leading bookstore would show volumes in the business section devoted to techniques and schemes aimed at manipulating the customer into saying yes to that valued order.
I wonder how many of our companies have already hired experts to talk about how customers can be manipulated. It's high time for us to get back to the basics.
God's Word in PROVERBS 12:17 says, "A good man is known by his truthfulness; a false man by deceit and lies."
How would you like to be known?