Understanding the Importance of Relationship Building When Leading a Sales TeamIntroductionTo be successful in complex sales opportunities, these days a sales person must actively target specific accounts to gain a competitive advantage with the new collaborative sales model. They must successfully identify customers with a collaborative vision, or they will waste time, energy and money. It is important to implement an executive-level, relationship-building process with target customers as early as possible. Relationships require time to build trust between the parties. Should there be failure to make the required time commitment and if a targeted prospect partners with one a competitor, then it will be very difficult to gain access to that prospect after the fact.
Success and Building RelationshipsAll successful people have the ability to develop relationships that last. Building relationship requires the building of trust
Basis for Building RelationshipsA relationship is about two people eliciting responses from each other. In order to change a response, then you must first change your own actions. No matter what your role, title or position is within an organization then you are in the business of building relationships. Sales people are definitely in the business of building relationships because that is how things get sold. Those in leadership or management are also in the business of building relationships, because that is how things get done. Taking the Preferred Styles into AccountTo work effectively with other people, always take their preferred style of interaction and decision-making into consideration. Many misunderstandings derive from personal differences in style. For example, perceivers may see judgers as unwilling to take the time to explore creative options. Conversely, judgers can become irritated by perceivers who may sometimes stray from the agenda. Relationships are Person to PersonThe business relationship-building process can almost be compared to dating and marriage. The customer and sales person will enter into a committed relationship and there will be issues that will test the relationship. A successful business partnership and a successful marriage depend on relationship-building or the dating process. Partners must understand each other's strengths and weaknesses before they fully commit to the partnership. In our personal lives, dating requires multiple contacts in different settings for couples to determine if marriage is even a possibility. Meeting parents and relatives will help the couple understand family cultures and provide indicators for a harmonious long-term commitment. During the dating process, the couple will identify their family culture and establish a vision for the relationship. If there are common visions and come from similar cultures, then any forthcoming marriage will have a greater chance for success. A business relationship, like marriage, requires a great deal of give and take. There will always be some unexpected challenges, but they will usually be worked out if there is a common culture, a common vision and a true commitment to each other. Collaborative Selling ModelMany organizations today use an e-commerce model which uses technology to gain a competitive advantage. It is relatively easy to duplicate quickly. The collaborative selling model is focused on people building trust between business partners, distributors and their customers. The use of technology can only support the aims of the business relationship but could never replace it. This is the fundamental essence of the need to build solid business relationships and so is hard to duplicate. It takes time and due diligence to build trust and mutual commitment. Many organizations do not truly utilize long-term planning and as a result, relationships remain at a relatively low level and in narrow spectrum. The collaborative model is focused on building relationships at the upper-levels of prospect and customer organizations, where the partnering selection will be controlled and decided. Existing low-level relationships continue to be valuable, but as customers adopt the collaborative selling model, low-level contacts will provide only limited supplier selection input. They are your allies, though and will be valuable coaches as relationships are expanded to upper levels. The cost to build better and broader relationships is not high. Long-term failure to establish strong ties, though, can be extremely costly. Executives of target organizations will be available to professional sales persons during the relationship-building process because they have a partnering mentality. This is a process that many competitors will observe but not always appreciate. Partnering is based on trust, a common vision and a similar culture. Once partners are chosen, the door to the executive office will be closed to those not selected. This is an evolution, and old habits are hard to change, for buyers and sellers. A fair price and quality are givens. Both parties must focus on building strong upper-level relationships and learning to trust each other. Personal agendas and self-interest must be eliminated, and buyers and sellers must look for each other's interests. This is a long-term process with no shortcuts. The goal is to establish a strong working relationship with the best-of-the-best based on trust, a common vision and a similar culture. In most cases, several suppliers can deliver a quality product at a competitive price. Can they be trusted to continuously work on process improvements to maintain a competitive price, or will chosen suppliers become complacent and take the partnership for granted? Suppliers and their customers must develop a common vision and culture for the partnership, based on trust, to make collaboration and their commitments work. SME TargetsThe collaborative selling model is based on establishing strong, business-to-business, top-level relationships to build trust. Relationship building takes time and effort, but does not need huge expenditures. Quite often then, smaller, forward-thinking companies can compete and win over large competitors in this arena. They are more nimble and so building and targeting these prospects is more likely to generate shorter lead times for sales successes. Remember it takes time to build real trust. It cannot be rushed. Harnessing Customer KnowledgeOrganizational sales history is a matter of record, but most enterprises have done a poor job of documenting tacit knowledge. This is implied or unspoken knowledge about customers filed away in employee's heads. The first order of business should be to record or document this important customer knowledge. Next, organizations have to determine who will receive the information and what information will be accessible to them. Finally organizations have to determine how to keep the data current. How does an organization harness the customer knowledge in employees' heads? Education and training are the key answers. It is imperative that all employees need to understand the value of customer knowledge and how it will benefit them, the enterprise as well as the customer. Everyone's performance measures must be focused on knowledge gathering and updating the knowledge base. All people must see positive results from knowledge sharing. Employees within your organization need to understand the value of that the customer. It is also essential that everyone is delivering a consistent message to that customer at all contact points. Customers will quickly recognize the connection existing between organizations when they share knowledge and begin to exhibit a better understanding of each other so provide true continuity of service. They will favour organization that provide the same level of quality service and customer knowledge from associates throughout the supply chain rather than from disjointed competitors. Incentive plans and performance measures must encourage updating of customer information. Adding personal information to the database must be a priority for every employee. Employees must get the time they need to do this or intra-organizational interaction will not improve. After this information is collected, someone must be appointed to be responsible for the continuous sorting and filtering of all the information. The e-commerce age has encouraged the art of letting the customers provide and update their own information. Customers need to understand the value of that information and how it can be used and they need to update the information. This is an ongoing process that involves everyone in the organization, from top to bottom. Upper-level contacts need to be well documented, as those contacts may reveal valuable information about the customer's decision-making processes. Organizations need to overcome the tendency of employees to hide knowledge as personal power. Some perceive knowledge as power lost once it is shared. Others view knowledge as security for their own job. Key Decision MakersA successful sales effort will create win-win results. The salesperson helps the customer solve problems, identifies opportunities for sales growth and is the contact between the customer and their own organization's capabilities. Successful salespeople will help their own organizations understand when to be flexible and change policy or standards. They must have enough influence to negotiate give-and-take agreements and be partnership builders. Understanding the Types of InfluencersThere are four basic buying influencers present in every complex sale. They are identified as the following:- The Economic BuyerThe economic buying influencer gives final approval to buy, based on the proposed match to the customer organization need. If it is seen as good value for the money, the economic buyer is the one individual who can approve a sale when everyone else has taken the opposite view. This can also work in reverse. The Technical BuyerThe technical buying influencer screens out other possible suppliers. Their focus is on the merits of the product or service itself. They make their recommendations based on how well the product or service meets a variety of objectives and specifications. Technical buyers cannot give the final approval to proceed, but can (and often do) give a final and negative response to a proposal The User BuyerThe user buying influencer makes a subjective judgment about the potential impact of the product or service on their own job performance. Their personal success is directly tied to the success of the proposed product or service. The Coach or Champion BuyerThe coach or champion guides the sales person to the desired sales goal by leading to the other buyer influencers. These individuals are a source for obtaining strategic information that is needed to position your sales effort effectively. |
