27 Jan 10 Crafting Your Sales Approach to Build Long-Term Client Relationships

long-term client When I was young and just starting out in my sales career I always wanted to soak up as much product knowledge as I could. I’d craft and streamline my elevator pitch to perfection in hopes of wooing my prospect with a bulletproof sales presentation. While this strategy isn’t necessarily bad, it involved me talking most of the time.

Too many sales people come across as overbearing and sales, as a profession, gets a bad wrap. Many customers think of sales people as sheisty crooks who do whatever they can to sell you a product or service in order to make a commission.

As a salesperson I learned that it’s important to think more about the buyer and less about my motives. What does your buyer really need? Just shut up and listen a little more! Before going into your long-winded sales pitch, ask them what they are looking for, what they need, and what exactly their game plan and objectives are. You’d be surprised by the amount of times I talked myself out of a sale because I didn’t listen to my prospect. More times than not, if you ask a prospect what they want, they will tell you.

Listen, gather information, and think about what your prospect is saying. Are they giving you any buying signals or rattling off anything specific that they want that you can provide? What do you have in your product/service arsenal to actually help them and solve their problem? Do you have a solution for them? Can you offer them something that will improve their business or save them money? How can your product or service make their life easier? If I can’t help a potential customer with 1 of the 3 below points I simply walk away from the sale:

Help your Customer Solve a Problem
Save your Customer money
Make your Customer’s life easier

Ethics comes into play and if I can’t help someone solve a problem, save money, or make their life easier, I let them know this is probably not the right fit for them. People will absolutely appreciate your candid approach and sincerity in having their best interest in mind versus you trying to shove a product or service down their throat. They may even go out of their way to try to reciprocate and send you referral business from their friends and family who may have a need for what you sell. Earning trust in business is very difficult, and building a relationship with a sale is even harder. If you start with the customer’s needs as your first priority, and cater your presentation based on their objectives, and actually try to help them, I’m confident that your closing ratio will go up and you’ll build long term client relationships; not quick turnover sales.

Share and Enjoy: