Working In Sales? Be Careful How You Represent Your Product
If you're in the sales business in any industry, be careful what you say. While all sales professionals may be inclined to brag up their products a little, you have to make sure that you don't misrepresent the product. If you do, and the customer relies on your words, you've opened yourself (or the company you represent) up to a lawsuit. This is what you should understand about misrepresentation.
What is misrepresentation?
Misrepresentation is a violation of contract law. It's a false statement that has the effect of sealing the deal with the buyer, or inducing them to purchase what you have to sell. It differs from the sort of general statements that someone might make about a product in order to sell it, which are considered to be mere hype or "puffery." It's important to know the difference before you speak.
For example, if you sell jewelry and you tell a buyer that the diamond ring that he's thinking of purchasing for his girlfriend for Valentine's Day is "stunning," that's puffery or hype -- not a statement that's intended to be taken as fact.
However, if you say that the diamond is "a flawless example," that could be taken as fact in the context of what you are selling. A flawless diamond is, naturally, more valuable than one that has even a few tiny flaws. If the gentleman buys the diamond based on your statement and finds out later that it does, in fact, have a few small flaws, he would have a legitimate lawsuit against you for misrepresentation.
What if you didn't mean to misrepresent the item?
The law recognizes three different types of misrepresentations: innocent, intentional, and negligent. An innocent misrepresentation occurs when you believe what you are saying and there's no obvious reason that you shouldn't. For example, if your gem broker told you that the diamond you were selling was flawless, then you'd have every reason to trust your broker's word (unless you were an expert gemologist yourself and could tell the difference).
An intentional misrepresentation is just what it sounds like -- a purposeful lie that's told just to make a sale. For example, telling a customer that the ring that he's looking at is actually an estate piece that once belonged to a Hollywood starlet in order to give it a history that might cinch the sale when you don't really know where the ring came from would be intentional misrepresentation.
Negligent misrepresentations are probably the most common type of misrepresentation because they can happen so easily. One example is when salesmen make simple overstatements that they don't realize can be taken as fact, such as calling a diamond "flawless." Another common occurrence is when a salesman relies on what he or she thinks is true, rather than checking out the facts. For example, if the customer asks if the diamond is "conflict-free," you open yourself up to negligent misrepresentation by saying that it is without checking the diamond's exact origins, even if most of the diamonds you sell are considered conflict-free.
How do you avoid misrepresentation?
The easiest way to avoid misrepresentation is to be conscious of how your words could be perceived in the context of what you are selling. For example, if you are selling a diamond ring, words like "perfect" and "flawless" are relative to the quality of the stone, but words like "beautiful" and "breathtaking" are not. If you're selling a car, saying that it is "fun to drive" is essentially nothing more than hype, but saying that it "is a top quality car" could be misrepresentation if it turns out that the car isn't one of the top rated of its type.
The second thing that you should always do is double check your facts. If you don't know the answer to a question with 100% certainty, it's better to say something like, "I think this is correct, but let me double check for you." You'll have more credibility with your customers and avoid an unpleasant lawsuit later.
For more information on how to avoid lawsuits based on misrepresentation (or what to do if you're faced with one), talk to an attorney like Strauss Troy near you.
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