How is your sales karma? The way that you treat others is the way that you will be treated. Every time! Maybe not today or tomorrow, but karma has a way of coming back to you. Are you creating good karma or bad karma in your business?

What goes around comes around when you lie to salespeople or tell them the truth.

Treat people the way that you want to be treated. Tell the truth! It sounds like the simplest thing in the world, but being completely honest with salespeople seems like a real challenge these days. Business owners think that salespeople are liars and will say anything to win the sale. But have you ever stopped to think about how many times you’ve lied to salespeople and will say anything to avoid the truth?

How many times have you told a salesperson that you’ll think it over with no intention of doing any thinking? Have you ever asked someone to call you next week and then never picked up the phone when they do? Maybe you have even told them to put together a proposal or send information without any regard for their time spent honoring your request. If you have, shame on you.

Salespeople and professionals take the brunt of hostility, deception, and disrespect every day in the marketplace. These professionals suffer from the reputation of being dishonest liars who will say or do anything to close the sale. Let me be clear, I’m not talking about the type of professionals who will say and do anything to get the sale. Those creeps exist and unfortunately will be around for a long time. I’m standing for and writing about the professionals who wake up every day and attempt to accomplish an honest day’s work. Some people with a great passion for their product, service, or idea are trying to make a decent living. Honest professionals do exist.

How you treat people always comes back to you in the same way. This is known as sales karma. Karma is the idea that actions that you perform today have an impact on what happens to you in the future. If you do a good deed today, it will come back to you in the same way. If you lie to salespeople, you or your staff will be lied to. If you treat another honest business owner with disrespect, you or your company will be on the receiving end of that too. That’s how karma works. As the old saying goes, karma is a bitch.

So, if buyers are lying because they think salespeople are lying, how do we alter this vicious cycle? How about we start by telling each other the truth? That honesty is the best policy was something I learned in kindergarten. Telling the truth and being honest in sales and business means that we never have to worry about the teeth of sales karma coming back to bite us in the ass.

Many people think it’s completely acceptable to lie to salespeople, because in their minds, they believe that all salespeople lie. To them, it’s perfectly normal to look someone in the eye and lie to their face. They tell themselves that they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, but the reality is that they don’t want to feel the emotions of telling someone the truth. If they really cared about someone else’s feelings, they would feel awful about pretending to be interested. Sure, it can be uncomfortable to tell someone no, but isn’t it more uncomfortable knowing that you’re lying and leading them on? Think about that for a moment. That is a crappy way to treat someone.

Tell yourself the truth. Stop lying to another human being who is trying to make a living.

Take into account how much time and money is being wasted by individuals not being honest with each other. Another human being is on the other end of the phone or an email simply doing their job. Shoot them straight, be up front, be honest. If you’re not interested, tell them this so that they may move on. Don’t tell them to call you next week, that their proposal looks great, that you need to think about it, or that you will get back to them, with no intention of ever talking to them again.

Think about your business. How much more efficient and profitable would you be if you heard the truth from your clients and customers?

Sales karma is at play all day, every day, and when you least expect it, it will come back to bite you. Make honesty and serving others your number one priority, and the good karma will find its way to you and your business. Take the high road, and make a huge deposit into your personal bank of good karma.

Liz Wendling is the author of two books (and counting): The Unstoppable Business Woman and Everyone Sells Something, a columnist for Colorado Biz Magazine, and one of the first nationally credentialed facilitators for Napoleon Hill Mastermind groups. Learn more at lizwendling​.com.