"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life."
Mary Kay Ash
We all know that revenue is found in your relationships. Building strong relationships is vital to your business success, but how does one go about building strong professional relationships? Here, we'll examine five simple but essential rules for building strong relationships with your customers, prospects, and referral partners.
The Most Interesting Person In The World: The person you're talking to. No, not yourself, not your great products, not your phenomenal service, fast delivery, or all of the features you want to shout to your contact. Learn what you can in advance of your meeting so you can have a thoughtful dialogue about what really matters: them. Once in the meeting get your client or prospect talking about the most important person in the world: them. I like to ask people questions like; "What made you go into business for yourself?", or "I saw you used to work as a CFO for XYZ Manufacturing... tell me about how you came to leave that career path and start this children's clothing store." Remember to have thoughtful dialogue as opposed to trite "warm-up" conversation such as "Wow, can you believe it is snowing again? They're calling for more tomorrow. I can't remember a worse winter... what about you?"
Ask Questions: Ask plenty of questions about what you'd like to know. Questions can be fact finding, closed, leading, or open ended. I prefer open ended, powerful questions to help my customer or prospect open up to me. If I were selling accounting software and speaking to a CPA I may ask "Tell me what changes to the tax code are occupying extra time this year?", and "Help me understand how you're billing the additional time to your clients? Are you, or are you keeping the costs to clients static?"
Ask all sorts of questions. To keep with the CPA example I'd want to know; How many clients she has, what market does she serve, how does she find new clients, who are good referral partners for her, does she network, and if so where, etc. A great healthy curiosity helps you know the client or prospect at a deeper level. It also helps show them you care about them.
Ask all sorts of questions. To keep with the CPA example I'd want to know; How many clients she has, what market does she serve, how does she find new clients, who are good referral partners for her, does she network, and if so where, etc. A great healthy curiosity helps you know the client or prospect at a deeper level. It also helps show them you care about them.
Listen: Most people don't, so don't be most people. Actively listen to your client or prospect. Show them you're listening by asking intelligent follow on questions based on their responses. Or for more detail about one of their answers. e.g. "You were just telling me that xyz professionals are great referral partners for you. I don't think I've ever had a CPA mention that profession to me. Help me understand why you find that profession so valuable as a referral source". And listen some more. Keep listening.
Take Note: Listening is key but even the most accomplished listener may not remember everything said during the course of a conversation. Take notes. Ask permission to take notes at the beginning of your meeting and then do so. Take notes on your iPad, Tablet, or heck... even an old school yellow legal pad. Jot down important points your customer or prospect has made. Ask follow up questions to gain better clarity. Take note of those answers. Look briefly for inconsistencies in statements or thoughts and clear up any confusion by digging deeper into those statements. Take notes and gain agreement around challenges, opportunities, and desires your client or prospect shares.
Build Their Business: You've uncovered all kinds of great information during your conversation. Put it to use. If a customer or prospect tells me that Commercial Realtors are a great contact I go through my contact list and make introductions for that person to the Commercial Realtors I trust and hold in high esteem. Building their business doesn't always mean you have to send a customer their way. You don't. You may be able to offer aid in a key area where they've identified a challenge; or you may know someone who can help them. You almost certainly know 5-10 people your customer or prospect would love to meet. Do these business building activities for them. Help them. Sales professionals always seem to utter phrases like "add value" or "value add". Sadly, very few actually offer anything the customer or prospect really values. Be different. If you've had a relationship building conversation, you will know several real ways you can help them gain something of benefit. Warning: their benefit very likely has nothing to do with the product or service you are selling. Give first. Build the relationship by helping them build their network, contacts, customers, or prospects.
