Too many salespeople focus on “relationship building” believing that the better the relationship the better the chance is of getting business from the customer.
Most companies themselves believe that relationship building should be the key area of sales activity in the organization.
There is nothing wrong with having a good relationship with your customer but these relationships should be as a consequence of you doing business with the customer and not in the hope of getting business.
A good relationship between you and your customer, one which is based on like and trust, should be as a result of you helping them to grow and improve their business.
It should be based on you having made the effort to understand their business and identify their areas of concern and then giving them good advice on how the products and services you sell could help them achieve this.
Customers are not interested in relationships before they buy from you, they are more interested in what you can do for them, “how can you help me to grow and improve my business?”
So your focus as a sales professional when working on getting business from a customer, both new and existing, should be on what you can do to help the customer improve their business. In other words “get to the point”.
This is one of the reasons why salespeople are finding it so difficult to get appointments with their customers. Customers don’t have time for too much small talk, they want action.
If you don’t add value by finding out what your customer’s problems are and giving them good advice on how to overcome these problems then customers are going to avoid wasting time meeting with you.
Just “Popping in for a chat” in the hope of building a relationship is wasting time, your time your companies time and the customers time.
Concentrate on building a relationship with your customer but only as a consequence of them doing business with you.
Focus first on getting the business!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
© 2019 Ray Patterson. All materials, images and contents contained herein are the intellectual property of Ray Patterson and may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, displayed, adapted or modified without Ray Patterson’s express permission. Any unauthorized copying, reproduction, distribution, display, adaptation or modification will amount to copyright infringement.