When a salesperson behaves in an unethical manner, for any reason, it reflects upon everyone in the entire company and the transgression is especially upsetting for those who manage them. If the dishonestly involves a sales contest, particularly if it was for a nominal amount of money, it's insulting.

Inspect What You Expect

Yes, even with sales contests. If you are asking your sales representatives to perform certain tasks, whatever they might be, and you are assigning a value to those tasks, no matter how modest, you must somehow verify that the results are accurate and truthful. So the next time you sponsor a contest, have a way of auditing the outcome.

Prior Bad Acts

If this salesperson has been in any way unethical in the past, they must be terminated immediately. The other sales representatives may already know or suspect that this employee has engaged in dubious practices prior to this infraction. By keeping them on staff you both sanction their behavior, and encourage the other sales representatives to cheat as well. Those on the staff who would never consider cheating will be resentful and lose respect for you as a manager.

First-time Offense

You may feel that their action was totally out of character and the first and only time that this sales rep has done anything like this. If they are a solid producer, you may want to try and salvage this situation and retain them as an employee. If this is the case, when you sit down to meet with them about the sales contest, ask the following questions:

• Did you do this?
• Why?
• Are you aware of the risk you took for $150?
• What impact do you think this has on others in the organization?
• What would you do if you were a manager and one of your salespeople did this?
• What do you think the sales staff thinks I should do?
• How do I know this won't happen again?
• If I do some research, will I find any other instances of cheating?
• Why shouldn't I fire you?

Let them know that you will consider what they had to say and meet with them the next day to tell them what your decision is. Let their reaction to the conversation help guide you. Did they acknowledge their wrongdoing? Did they act embarrassed and seem sincerely sorry or were they angry and hostile? Did they blame others? Make excuses? Try and weasel out of it?

Decision Time

If they admit to what they did, seem genuinely sorry, and have convinced you that this was a one-time only truly idiotic mistake, you may decide to give them another chance. If you do, lay down the conditions.

• 90 day probationary period
• No participation in any sales contests during probationary period
• Must be at 110% of quota at the end of the probationary period
• All of their paperwork will be periodically audited for the duration of their employment with your company
• Understand that any future misconduct or discoveries of past misconduct, for the length of their employment with you, will result in immediate dismissal

Reality Check

Keeping an employee on after a situation like this is one big roll of the dice. Though they may seem truly grateful that you aren't firing them and appear to be working hard, the reality is that they also might start looking for a job the next day. If they are serial cheaters, they know that you are on to them and that they won't be likely to get away with much going forward. For the sales rep who made a "one time" mistake, the pressure to perform combined with the damage to their reputation may prove to be too much.

The whole situation seems ridiculous and sad. But cheating can never be condoned and needs to be dealt with seriously. Consider yourself fortunate that you made this discovery during a sales contest and not for a transaction with a new or valued client that could have seriously damaged your company's reputation. You now know that this employee is capable of deceit and you are forewarned.