Have you ever scrolled through a post that just made you feel…gross? Maybe an ad that immediately made you NOT want to buy? Sometimes it’s more subtle—a push on a discovery call to book now despite saying you need time to think, a nudge that speaking to your significant other before investing is holding you back.
It looks different, but the feeling is the same: you’re being guilted, pressured, shamed, and even deceived to make a sale.
These are the unethical sales practices and ‘icky’ tactics used—and even taught, in some spaces—to make sales, book out launches, and grow businesses, but leave your audience feeling used for a paycheck.
What is an Unethical Sales Practice?
What makes a sales practice, tactic, or strategy unethical may depend on your personal morals, but we all agree: if you have to lie, pressure, twist the truth, or make someone feel icky to get them to say “yes,” you’re probably crossing some lines.
Unethical marketing loves to rely on:
- Lies, guilt, and shame to get consumers on the call, in their chair, or even to sign the contract
- Fear, pressure, manipulation, and even false urgency to force a decision
- Overpromises, hiding important details, or skipping over the risks to get the “yes”
- Cherry-picking results or manipulating testimonials and reviews to skew the reality of their transformations and offers
To be clear: this isn’t another way to say you’re “doing it wrong” when it comes to selling. There will always be something you’ve done in the past that you don’t feel great about now (especially when it comes to sales). It’s okay, there’s room to learn and grow here.
And the more we talk about the strategies and tactics that are normalized, the less common they become. In fact, my This is How You Sell Textbook and Reveal’s Brain-Based Buying Framework© are built on learning how to sell ethically.
What Unethical Sales Often Looks and Sounds Like in the Online Space
You’ve probably seen a sketchy sales tactic in the wild in the past 24 hours.
It’s not always a bold claim or an obvious misuse of social proof (like the lost trust we’ve had in Stripe screenshots over the past 5 years)—sometimes it’s something seemingly normal, like manufactured intimacy or statements like, “if you’re serious about your business, you’ll find a way” or “if you’re truly an expert, why haven’t you invested in this.”
Unethical sales often looks like:
- A “limited-time sale” that gets extended…again
- Pressuring someone to decide on the call or “this deal’s off the table
- Saying “this is $XXXX value” without backing up how that number was calculated
- Withholding pricing until the very end of a sales call to increase pressure
- Calling something a “bonus” when it’s part of the main offer
- Running a free masterclass or webinar that’s honestly just a giant pitch
- Love-bombing you in comments or DMs—then immediately promoting their offer
You don’t always have an immediate reaction, or an “ew” moment when you’re reading it. It can sit with you, make you second-guess yourself and the decisions (and investments) you’ve made.
You could be halfway through a course, program, or offer and simply feel unsafe or unsettled. And, unlike normal discomfort (we are human, after all), your concerns are brushed aside, or blame is placed on you.
You’re suddenly “uncoachable” or didn’t follow the step-by-step instructions that you didn’t have access to in the first place—and the “money-back guarantee” is impossible to claim.
Unethical Sales and YOUR Audience: Avoiding Icky Tactics in Your Marketing
The same way YOU feel when you’re sold to in an icky and unethical way is how your audience feels when the same tactics are intentionally (and unintentionally) turned on them.
You lose their trust, the “safe” feeling they have when investing in your offers, and if they choose NOT to invest, you’re left rebuilding their trust—and when they DO invest, you’re spending the entirety of your time together hoping your offer is good enough to overcome the uncomfortable and unsettled feeling they have by the time it’s time to resign or off board.
BUT, if you focus on building trust, providing clarity, and creating a true desire for your offers and what they do to get the “yes” that’s rooted in confidence, you won’t be rebuilding anything.
You’ll be reinforcing that trust with a good experience—which leads to returning clients, referrals, and testimonials sharing how in love they are with your offers.
To put it simply: Unethical sales practices leave businesses constantly rebuilding trust and convincing their clients and consumers their offers are worth it.
Ethical sales practices give your audience the confidence to make the buying decision on their own and enjoy the experience of working with you.
P.S. If you’re reading this and you want to learn more about ethics in sales and how to sell without slipping into an unethical sales tactic, get the textbook: This is How You Sell and uncomplicate sales and marketing in a way that makes your audience feel good about investing in YOU.
