The world of sales continues to change and evolve daily. The evolved sales tactics and various technologies help sales people to get new customers and retain current ones.

It is a tough world for salespeople, especially in B2B. But there is also an advantage of getting an abundance of knowledge and learning new techniques out there that will help achieve success and reach the desired goals. Even though you master thousands of techniques there is one sales tactic that every salesperson should master and that is relationship selling.

Relationship selling is all about the connection and relationship you build with your customers and potential buyers. A human interaction, where you generally care about connecting with your customer or buyer on the relationship level.

The focus should be on building and cementing the relationship with your customer, but too many sales people focus on all other elements of sales ignoring the power of relationship. Although the product details, pricing and other elements of sales are important and needs to be discussed with your customer but all this will lead to a dead road, without building trust and like-ability quotient, and ultimately you will end up missing your deals and overall sales quota.

Relationship selling is generally used for companies that have longer sales cycles, expensive products or software, or things that require more commitment when it comes to purchasing.

When relationship selling techniques are important for customers and clients, it also can affect potential buyers who are talking with you and closing in on a purchasing decision. Even if you have the best product or pricing, you can still cause a sale to not close because of your own selfish interests or lack of interest in their challenges.

There are few relationship selling techniques that have been around for quite some time. Let’s explore the ones which are practiced for success in the sales field.

Become an active listener:

In order to find success and connect with a customer or buyer, you need to speak less and actually focus more on actual listening to the customer. There is a chance that customers will like you more If you pay attention to them. It will also help you to understand what are their needs and challenges.

Relate on a personal level:

For relationship selling to work, you need to connect with clients on a personal level, understand their motivations, challenges, learn about their interests, tastes, preferences, company news etc. Start finding unique ways to spark a conversation where you both have common interests or can relate in some way. This will help you to build a profile as not just another salesperson, but an actual human being as well.

Keep your word and be honest to build trust:

The second you break a promise and do not deliver something you said you would or follow up when you said, you are damaging your trust and reputation

Building a positive working relationship with someone takes trust and you being reliable. If you are missing deadlines and not delivering on time. You can easily lose a sale or find your working relationship going nowhere.

If you can be honest from the start about everything from pricing, solution, no hidden contracts your relationship will be off to a better start. Even if your product or services is not a good fit, You might lose that particular sale, but they will appreciate the honesty and may refer others to your products or services. So honesty is truly the best policy in sales.

Conclusion:

The concept of relationship selling has been around for a long time, but even in the digital age with the advancement in sales tools, this is still an important tactic to master.

It makes sense, building positive working relationships will be key to closing a new deal, retaining current customers for the long run, and developing a trust that can lead to new referrals.

This process may seem pretty simple, many sales people forget the basics and the importance of caring more about the individual than just worrying about the sale.

Author Bio:

A startup sales consultant, keynote speaker, and sales trainer. Passionate about sales and selling, Prakash is inspiring the business community by sharing sales experience, tips, and strategies. Drop a line anytime at prakash@hisales.in, whether it’s about a project, collaboration, feedback or just business – He’d love to hear from you.