Honest advice vs making a sale

A conflict arises when visiting a site between making a sale and giving the customer the best advice possible. We like to solve coating problems, and if the problem can be solved by using a product on our range, then a sale is possible. It is better to walk away from a sale than to offer a solution that is not guaranteed - your own personal integrity, as well as the technical integrity of your products remains intact. For a technical person this is probably easier than for a salesperson driven by commission, or sales targets, but we pride ourselves on the fact that we do not fall into that trap. This is why we have technical consultants rather than sales-people. Many a time have we advised customers to tile rather than paint, to go for cheaper options in certain applications, or simply questioned the reason for wanting to paint in the first place. Paint cant solve all issues, and the customer needs to be told when this is the case, so that more cost-effective alternatives can be looked at. In the same way, customer expectations of coating systems need to be managed - by giving accurate information with regard to life-expectancy of the coating - so that later disappointments are avoided.