Sales is all about relationship building!
A friend of mine recently went for a job interview. At the end of the interview when she asked for feedback she was told that “you don’t really have an agenda”. When she asked him to explain, he added “I’ve interviewed hundreds of people for jobs over the years, but the thing that struck me most about you is that you don’t seem to have any ulterior motives or agendas. You don’t seem to have an underlying side to you at all.”
My friend is not in sales by the way.
So how does this relate to sales?
One of the key aspects to relationship building so important in sales, and particularly when you’re dealing with prospects, is your intent.
Why are you meeting this prospect? Is it to:
- Sell them something?
- Help achieve your target?
- Go through the sales numbers game and get another tick?
- Make money from them?
It won’t surprise you to learn that all of these approaches are completely wrong, yet it’s what most salespeople do.
When you’re in front of any customer or prospect:
- Have their best interests at heart.
- Focus entirely on them.
- Adopt a needs-based, solution driven approach.
- Clear your mind of what you do and what it costs. Your customers only care about what’s in it for them.
We can’t stress how important this is. Indeed, we believe it’s the key to effective relationship building. If your customers think you’ve got an underlying agenda, you’ll come across as hard selling and product pushing.
Take a relationship building, partnership based approach and always focus on the needs of your customers. They will thank you for it.
80-90% of salespeople are considered by their customers to hard sell because their underlying, selfish agenda comes through in their body language, attitude and behaviours.
My friend doesn’t have an agenda, do you?