Sales training is usually concerned with ensuring that sales and marketing professionals maintain a pride in what they do, in spite of the public perception of salesmen being con artists. It is not surprising that the public have a jaded view when door to door salesmen introduce themselves as market researchers. The way in which trainers ensure salesmen maintain their pride is by ensuring the highest ethical standards. However, there are some approaches to sales and marketing which some might consider effective, but others would say they are questionable. One of these is something known as ‘the social proof model’.

In its simplest form, this model is a way of saying that something must be good because other people like it.

There is of course no problem with the simplest examples of this such as accurately describing a product as the fastest or best selling. Similarly, charities will often list all the people already donating to them.

However, there are areas where manipulation seems less than 100 per cent honest. For example, a nightclub owner ensuring that there is a constant queue of people waiting to enter. Even more common is salesmen telling fictional stories of the many satisfied customers who have bought their product. Estate agents have sometimes been accused of creating fictional rivals for a property you are considering buying. Likewise, recent reports have suggested that auction websites often have people inflating prices by either bidding for their own sale items or having friends do it.