Sales, ultimately, has a lot to do with relationship building with your clients. If the people you’ve hired to talk to people aren’t particularly good at talking to people or are frustrated easily with the same problems or inquiries over and over again, sometimes it’s hard to keep a client base that can really relate to your company. Sometimes sales come more down to timing and what people have in their pockets, but underneath it all, building trust between two professionals is the best way to make a sale that keeps on selling.
Building a friendship with someone is much like building a professional relationship with someone, and thus many of the same tactics apply to both situations. Here are a few to help you on your way to forming closer, profitable situations with associates.
Stop trying to be the person you think they would want for their services. You may not be the most amiable or charming person, but don’t let that stop you from being you. Being friendly and outgoing is a good thing and can help you build relationships faster, but the core of a good relationship lies in how well you communicate with them and how much of a relationship you build. Just because you are on a good friendly basis with someone doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy the world from you, but making sure you develop the ability to focus on what they want and need is key to a successful sale. Being up to date in technology news or having interesting things to share with your clients can help people feel like you’re a good source of trusted information, and this can help people understand that you’re worth more to them than just small talk about the weather.
Sometimes being silent is the best way to communicate. Even though listening is more than just quietly nodding your head when someone is talking to you, that’s a great step forward since usually if you’re talking, you can’t listen. Listening is key to hearing not only about the person you’re trying to sell to, but about their concerns with your products so you can drive the sale home through a good ear and not just a good speech.
And put that piece of paper back into your pocket – talk from the heart instead. You need to remember that people, including you, probably like to hear people talk organically and not like they’re robots. Try to customize what you say to someone through the way you say it and through jovial comments you make with someone back and forth. Offering a client truly insightful solutions that aren’t from a box can really help the client understand how the service works for them, not just how the service works.
Everyone on your team should be on the same page when it comes to sales and how to sell a product to your clients, so having a small but informative training course can really assist many people.
