Do sales people mislead customers?

I do agree that sale person mislead their customer in order to close their sale because sales job is target oriented so in order to fulfill their target they mislead their customer in order safe guard themselves. 

Of course the sales people mislead customers. Particularly in the service industry, like banking and insurance, first of all they just try to give rosy pictures on phone or even in person without providing any printed leaflet. Any sales man of even a DSA would introduce himself as if he is an officer of the Bank or Insurance Company. He would simply say I am speaking from so and so Bank. On asking for any printed literature, they would pretend that every talk was being recorded so there would be no need of any worry for the customer. If on insistence they provide some half true pamphlet and are asked what they have told is not avilable in the pamphlet, their pat reply would be that due to strict norms of the RBI or the Insurance Regulator, these things cannot be included in witing, but the company or bank provide all these things.

Not even that, they won't tell you what is there against the interest of the customer. For example one salesman on phone gave me a very rosy picture on behalf of a bank that if I would keep a block of certain amount fixed in my savings account I would earn high rate of interest and the bank would provide so and so facilities (he counted a lot of such facilitis). I just told him to provide me the printed pamphlet of the bank. The gentleman visited personally, tried to convince me by making me see the pamphlet at a glance. On insistence that I would like to study all the points of the pamphlet and then reply. He left the pamphlet reluctantly. In that pamphlet a negative provision was included, according to which a penalty at the rate of Rs.1500 per quarter wa to be be charged if the balance after that fixed amount (for highere interest rate) would fall at any time below certain limit. That meant the depositor was perforce to keep two fixed amounts in his savings account with the bank. And on withdrawal in emergency out of his own deposit balance he would pay heavy penalty for the fall of the limit even for a single day. This way the bank would be swallowing even the original deposit of the depositor by deducting penalty amount much more than the interest allowed every quarter. The sales person avoided to apprise me on that issue.

In medical insurance cases most of the people get befooled by the sales people, as they don't tell that certain illnesses, if they have already been suffering for the last three years or so would not be covered with the insurance policy. People get themselves insured because of the rosy picture shown by the sales person. They are able to know that the sales person befooled him only when they get the insurance policy.

In fact most of the people come to know that they have been mislead by the sales persons much after they get experience of any loss.

Yes. It true sales people mislead customers to generate sales. This happens in most of the cases when a company appoint DMA ( Direct Marketing Associates) a group or a company that work on comission basis to sell products. One of the main cause of misleading is lack of konwlege about the product to DMA'S. These DMA's were not trained properly about product feature/benefits etc. and when they go to customer they manipulate the things or say yes to all the feature even though these features were not available in a product, just to close the sale.

These types of sales people doesn't work for more then few month and they know that they will leave the group/company after few months and there will be no catching afterwards. So they just try to earn their comission by selling products.

These types of sales people can be find hugely in Financial Service Industry e.g. Mutual fund, Insurance, Credit Card etc.

I will put it some other way round. They don't mislead consumers but they hide lot of facts which can put off the sale. This practice definately hearts the business prospects of the company or the store.

Even i am in sales, but i feel YES now a days in the market, most (NOT all) of the sales people misguide the customers just push their products somehow.  BUT THESE SALES PEOPLE DON'T SURVIVE HAPPILY IN THIS FIELD AFTER A CERTAIN PERIOD. Dear All Sales Guys, please help the customers in choosing the right solution for them and LET US HAVE A GOOD NAME MANOG ALL THE PROFESSIONS.

ALOK

It is a fact that most sales people mislead customers (i am not telling all).  the trend is especially very high in BFSI segment where, may it be ULIPS or Insurance or personal loans everything was mis-sold and the trend was so worst that RBI and IRDA had to intervene to put stringent regulations in place.  Despite this also still the trend continues.  In BFSI the most mis-sold product is an ULIP stating that it is a short term money doubling investment instrument, when actually it is not.  If you look at the average misleading sales in each sector, every sector has a standard.  To my knowledge, Insurance sector scores the most, then to some and large extent FMCG.

Misleading sales is done mostly in consumer - B2C Segment where customers are taken into confidence using technical jargons.

It is minimal in corporate/industrial sales as it involves procurement department which has experienced managers.

However, misleading sales is mostly done by executives who are under high pressure targets.  Misleading sales are also done by greedy sales managers and demoralised sales teams/employees.

The another name of marketing is, "To make you believe that you need a think that you actually don't". A good salesman is someone who can do this task very neatly and can sell more and more products. They don't even mind in telling lies to customers for this...

According to me yes at times they mislead customers, I've had a first hand experience and which was not so pleasant, where I was suggested product where the guy hyped like anything and convinced me to buy the product, and that is why there are sales people right to convince you, and later after two months the product did not last long and when went in for an exchange they refused me to give and the sales guy who sold me the product was no where in the picture, this is totally unacceptable where they force you to go for another product just because there is a good commision for them, I've heard that this happens in Life insurance policies also where customers are misled, I have seen sales staff usually try to convince you to buy a particular costly product for no reason at all.