It often seems that we live in a world of “right” and “wrong.” But when it comes to your role in sales, the fact of the matter is that there is no right or wrong way to establish a relationship with a client. In fact, there are plenty of ways to build your career as a sales professional, and whether you represent your own business or provide outsourced sales services for another business, the only way to realize true success is to find the sales approach that works best for you. Here are some of the relationship approaches we see most often:
- If you prefer to go the route of the networking, you will need to build a reliable tree of friends, fellow salespeople, previous customers, co-workers and family members as well as new acquaintances in order to establish leads that are viable for completing a sale. This approach requires sales professionals to be comfortable with heavy socializing and diligently following up on conversations and promises. Remember—recommendations and referrals are the key to building relationships in this route, so you can’t afford to let a relationship go sour.
- If you’re a people person, you’ve probably tried your hand at becoming a fast friend with your new prospective client. As you can imagine, the average consumer is more comfortable buying from someone they know, like and trust. If this sounds like a tactic you could manage, be sure you’re taking the time to make a genuine emotional connection because buyers can easily tell when you’re faking friendship.
- Other buyers may be more comfortable with salespeople who act as experts. But before you jump into this sales approach, make sure that you take every step possible to gather all of the experience and information you will need to be truly considered an expert and problem-solver for your clients. We’ve written about building trust with clients extensively, click here to read Jeff Purtell’s post from October 2014.
- On the other hand, some clients prefer to have a more give-and-take relationship with a sales professional who fills the role of consultant. As somewhat of a combination of the first two tactics, the consultant role requires the sales professional to proceed with the best interest of the buyer in every way. To master what is perhaps the most demanding role, we at Acquirent strongly recommend that consultants have full knowledge of his or her products, services and offerings and be able to apply them to the client’s needs all while maintaining a collaborative working relationship.
Remember—more often than not you’ll be filling all of these roles simultaneously. In any role, honest, direct communication will always be your best friend.
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