Apr 1, 2018
No Comments
Each industry and each salesperson has their own selling technique that works best for them. Each type has its own perks and downsides, and different ones are used for different purposes. One selling technique that has been around for a long time but that has gotten quite popular in the recent years is relationship selling. The definition given by Sales Hacker is, “a sales tactic by which a salesperson seeks to build rapport and earn a buyer’s trust to win deals, rather than highlighting product features or negotiating the price.” The reason this has gotten so popular recently is that the typical “salesman” has gotten a pretty bad connotation over the years as being sly, and out for only themselves. There are, of course, some salespeople like this, but true salespeople know that this tactic is not the way to go if you are trying to build relationships and customer loyalty.
How Do They Relate?
So how does this relationship selling tie-in and differ with the marketing concept? The marketing concept is a well-known concept that started becoming widely accepted in the early 2000’s. The basic idea of the marketing concept is that businesses should focus on how to make their product fit their customer’s needs, better than their competitor can. Based on these definitions, you can see that the two concepts go hand in hand. Both of these principles stray from the old way of looking at marketing and selling. The old way being, it’s the salesperson’s job to convince customers that their product is exactly what they need. Both techniques are changing so that the product fits the customer instead of finding a way for the customer to fit the product. The reason they are so beneficial in selling is that if you are selling a product to a customer and it is exactly what they want or needs you will not have customers coming back to you with buyer’s remorse or dissatisfied with the product. The customer will be happy that they found the product they wanted and they will want to come back to you for the next purchase they make. So overall, both relationship selling and the marketing concept are both based on the customer and the company both ending up satisfied.
The marketing concept and relationship selling are both working towards building long-term relationships with the customer so that they can potentially be a customer for life. It is a lot easier and less expensive to keep a customer than to acquire a new customer, this is a part of the logic behind relationship selling and the marketing concept. If you can build a solid base of customers, and then keep building on that base, eventually you won’t have to put barely any money into new customer acquisition costs, which can get very high at times.
How to Implement Them
So now that we’ve clarified how important both relationship selling and the marketing concept are, what is the best way to succeed using these? The first thing that you will want to do is to provide high-quality customer service from the very first time you meet a customer. This may sound basic, but it is important for you and all of your employees to know the importance of it so that they also make sure that is it smooth sailing from the beginning. First impressions are hard to get out of people’s head, so make sure not to waste your only first impression with bad customer service.
Once you pitch to a potential customer, whether they buy or not, it is very important to continue to act professional and with great customer service. The reason someone may choose not to buy could be they don’t have a need for your product at the time, if you treat them the same way whether they buy or not, they will remember you when they do need the kind of product you are selling.
The last main thing you want to do is to produce very efficient and effective follow up with the customer after they have bought your product. Don’t wait for them to come to you with a question, be available and ask them how the product is working for them shortly after they have purchased. If they do come to you about an issue first, respond to them in a very timely manner, and make them feel like their question is important to you and that you are there for their assistance. Following these tips are some of the key points when you are trying to master relationship selling and the marketing concept. Relationships with your customers will make you more profitable and more successful as a business.