NFPBS News
Sales Code Established
Having announced three new initiatives at its annual conference earlier this summer – a system of Professional Registration for sellers, a Code of Conduct, and a programme of Continuing Professional Development – the Association of Professional Sales (APS) claims that its autumn campaign to drive up ethics and standards in the sales industry has got off to a flying start. Having launched their Professional Registration and the Code of Conduct on 1st September with more than 600 sales individuals already signed up, and interest being expressed by individuals from the UK, the US and Australasia the APS believes it is garnering “truly global attention”, and forming a quality guarantee for the sales industry. Ian Helps, APS director of sales professionalism says, “Customers will henceforth be able to search for those sales professionals who are registered in this way, and so be able to proactively choose to work with sales professionals who have committed to ‘do the right thing and get the right result’.” The programme, and professional registration, which is in its test phase and is likely to go live at the beginning of next year, binds the seller to uphold an external guarantee of standards in sales, designed and administered by a professional body rather being an internal corporate initiative. According to APS, professionals who uphold and promote their Sales Code of Conduct are making a pledge to judiciously balance their responsibilities to their customers, to their employer organisation and to their profession. The APS Sales Code of Conduct spells out its four fundamental principles as, integrity; solution appropriateness; promoting and protecting good sales practices; and acting in line with organisational codes and within the law.