We all know that promotion and advertising are the bread and butter of any business growth. Having levers you can pull at strategic times to grow your business and ultimately revenue is the perfect solution, so long as everyone’s sticking to the rules.

What rules you ask? Both your own internal policies and those of the Law (ACL and minimum standards under the BNPL Code of Practice). These standards require merchants to act, lawfully and ethically in their dealings with customers – makes sense, right? Because we share customers, we want to help you with both.

Let’s get compliant

It is illegal for a business to engage in conduct that misleads or deceives or is likely to mislead or deceive consumers or other businesses. This law applies even if you did not intend to mislead or deceive anyone, or no one has suffered any loss or damage as a result of your conduct. We suggest you apply this filter to in-personal sales and online, including your social media account.

The ACCC Guidelines state:

• Businesses shouldn’t try to gain an unfair advantage by making misleading claims about their products or services.
• Claims should be true, accurate and based on reasonable grounds.
• A business must be able to prove any claim they advertise.

This includes creating a false impression, omitting something, or misusing the word “free”.

Examples of this are:

• “You will lose 20kgs in 2 weeks”.
• Selling software that isn’t compatible with the consumers device.
• Buy one get one free (when you’ve raised the price of the first product)

If you’d like to do some more reading on advertising guidelines, here’s some more resources:
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/false-or-misleading-claims
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013C00620/Html/Volume_3#_Toc368657554

You can still be an excellent sales person without being ‘pushy’!

Great features & benefits win over ‘harassment or coercion’.

The ACL prohibits harassment and coercion. The provision is quite broad and may apply to: a prolonged visit by a sales representative who ignores requests to leave, unwanted persistent telephone calls, use of particularly over-the-top methods of hard selling.

Monitor any sale that goes over a reasonable time frame, be upfront about any fees and charges, and ask enough questions about the customers needs so you only need to talk to their wants and fill in any knowledge gaps (stop the death by pitch techniques).

Don’t forget: Your personal and company brand can be impacted by unconscionable conduct

What’s fair? Can the customer understand the documentation used or are you using undue influence, pressure or unfair tactics? Is so, the sale could be null & void, you could end up on ACA or you could put a vulnerable person into hardship.

Qualify a customer quickly so you don’t invest time selling something they don’t really need. Look out for any red flags along the way and don’t ‘hard close’ to save a sale. It’s not worth your reputation.

How we can help

• Payright are happy to review any print or digital assets you create.
• Whenever you use our logo or mention our payment plans, please send copy to us for review. We can make sure your compliant and/or offer tips on the tone and techniques you’ve use.
• If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your Payright success manager – we’re here to support you!