OPINION: For those who make a living selling a product or service, the value of building strong relationships cannot be overestimated.
OPINION: For those who make a living selling a product or service, the value of building strong relationships cannot be overestimated.
Here is the rock, paper, scissors game of selling: relationship is more powerful than price; relationship is more powerful than delivery; relationship is more powerful than quality; and relationship is more powerful than service.
The quality of your relationships will determine the outcome of events when there is a problem or issue with price, delivery, quality or service.
I’m not saying that if you have a great relationship you can ignore important issues and skate by. I am saying that a great relationship will act as a buffer, and allow all problems and issues to be resolved harmoniously.
And just to put the power of the relationship issue to rest, it is also the single biggest factor in determining reorders.
Jim Cathcart is one of America’s foremost experts on selling through relationship building.
“I’ve studied relationships over the past two decades, and have not found anything more powerful to drive the sale,” he says.
Cathcart’s book called Relationship Selling is a benchmark study on how to do it right. He has compiled some observations and metaphors that might bring awareness to the power of your relationships with your customers, co-workers, vendors, friends and even family. Feel free to share them (giving proper credit to the source and author) with others.
• When the relationship is right, the details are negotiable. When tension is high, the relationship is wrong, and the details become obstacles.
• When there is not much difference between your product and those of your competitors, there had better be a big difference in the way you deal with people.
• In selling and service as in medicine, prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.
• We judge ourselves by our intentions, but others judge us by our actions.
• Motivation is like bathing. It may not last, but it’s still a good idea now and then. (I find it works best every day how about you?)
• A professional is no longer determined by the business he or she is in, but rather by the way that person is in (and does) business.
• If you want to improve your circumstances, begin by improving yourself.
• It is impossible to avoid leading by example; somebody is always watching you.
• Maturity is being able to get yourself to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done whether you feel like it or not, and still doing it well.
• Worrying is a mental rehearsal for (self-imposed) disaster.
• Become the kind of person who would (could) achieve your goals, and the accomplishment of those goals will be the natural by-product.
• People will teach you how to deal with them, if you’ll pay attention to the (spoken and unspoken) messages they are sending.
• One sincere gesture can do more for your business than thousands of dollars worth of advertising.
• It’s not just whether you sell the right item that counts. It’s whether the customer realises, feels, and believes that it was right for them.
• The best way to get what you want is by helping others get what they want.
• People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.
• Your pay will always be equal to the contribution you are making. To give yourself a raise, make a greater contribution to others.
• Successful salespeople think and act as the owners of their careers.
• There are no traffic jams in the extra mile. Go there if you want to get anywhere.
The rules of selling are not as tough as the rules of relationship. Relationships are hard to develop, take time to mature, and must be nurtured along the way. However, once achieved, they are the most powerful force in the business world.
How you treat others is determined by how you treat yourself.
• Are you treating yourself to the right preparation?
• Are you qualified to build a relationship?
• Do you possess the characteristics of giving first, professionalism, self-esteem, self-confidence, honesty and integrity needed to make relationships work?
If you think you have it all together, think again. You must work on yourself as much as you work on those you seek to relate to. Looking for a way to evaluate your capabilities?
The biggest judgment you make each day is the one in front of the bathroom mirror. Reflections don’t lie.
