Build Relationships to Sell Better and Close More Deals

Relationship selling is a better way to sell.

Relationship selling is building a relationship with prospects, to benefit both parties long term.

This means you don’t sell the product and never contact buyers again but instead:

• Keep contact with buyers
• Give personalised recommendations to help improve their business’s bottom line

Basically, relationship selling is about being helpful by:

• Providing value
• Retaining customers
• Guaranteeing long term revenue

So in this blog post, we will learn:

• What relationship selling is
• Look at a few examples
• Go over the relationship selling process

Let’s dive right in.

What’s Relationship Selling?

Relationship selling is when sales reps concentrate on their connection with customers more in the sales process.

Trust is deveolped in the relationship by giving value and time to prospects before trying to close.

And building good rapport between reps and buyers is focussed on more than features or price.

To do this, sales reps actively listen to prospects to:

• Find their needs
• Build a relationship

Alot of sales organisations use pre-written sales materials like email templates and call scripts.

When it would be more important for these organisations to:

• Actively listen
• Tailor pitches to develop relationships

Because most B2B customers feel in-depth personalisation is more important in relationship-building.

As with personalised experiences:

• Prospects are more likely buy expensive products
• They feel they’re part of a mutually-beneficial relationship

But with transactional selling, prospects will feel they are only part of the transaction, which is:

• Quick
• Un-personalized
• Not preferred by most B2B organisations

Transactional and Relationship Selling

A transactional sale is:

• A quick exchange of a product or service for money
• Doesn’t involve a personalised experience

Relationship selling is:

• Effort and research-intensive
• Involves personalisation and familiarity

Transactional selling works for:

• Low-cost, commoditized products
• It’s not worth rep investing time to get to know buyers

For example, the clothing and car industries have a lot of transactional selling.

Relationship selling works for businesses with:

• Long sales cycle
• With prospects needing more touch points before purchasing

Basically, relationship selling is good for selling:

• Expensive products or services
• Customised solutions

Relationship Selling Examples

Relationship selling is not only an enterprise B2B strategy.

This technique can also be used to sell consumer products.

For example, your tailor develops a personal relationship with you so you remain loyal.

And your favourite hotel will track guests’ preferences to create personalised experiences so they return.

The following are examples of businesses using relationship selling:

SaaS Companies

Enterprise SaaS providers use relationship selling to sell their products.

By first sending an outreach email asking for a quick call and then nurturing by sending links to helpful materials and free demos.

Using a CRM to keep prospects’ information so sales reps don’t have to remember customer details and develop the relationship.

Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers use relationship selling differently. 

They keep medical information on hand and tailor treatments depending on needs.

No matter which staff member sees you, the experience will be consistent on each visit.

Subscription Services

In B2C, subscription services like Spotify and Amazon Prime personalise algorithms to build relationships with users.

Without speaking to a salesperson, they can study habits and serve what you need.

Also, Google’s search engine studies behaviours to personalise content and search results.

Local Businesses

Local businesses like hair salons, coffee shops and bakeries use relationship selling to keep customers loyal.

For example, your hairdresser will remember your previous style choice, your name and life details to build a connection.

The relationship selling process can different based on the industry, but it has similar steps.

Relationship Selling Process

• Give value and insight in all emails and calls
• Learn about prospect’s challenges, objectives and professional goals
• Give advice tailored to business objectives
• Solve and empathise with prospect’s objections
• Find solutions to prospect’s objections
• Provide value after closing deals

Give value and insight in all emails and calls

Get credibility and become a trusted advisor by giving prospects value and insights, like:

• Helpful suggestions
• Sending links to relevant content
• Making valuable introduction
• Anything that benefits them

So, instead of getting a sale, you’re being helpful and nurturing the relationship.

Learn about prospect’s challenges, objectives and professional goals.

Next show you’re worth their time by asking about:

• Business challenges
• Objectives
• Metrics
• Qualifying characteristics
• Personal and professional goals

This information helps you know if:

• Your product help them
• If they can buy it

These are the basics of sales qualification and will help you understand if you can mutually benefit each other.

Also make sure the prospect is a good fit so you don’t force the sale with the ones who aren’t.

Because relationship selling is long term so convincing customers that don’t match to buy will lead to cancellations and/or returns.

When you could have gotten reviews, referrals, upgrades and cross-sales.

Give advice tailored to business objectives

Give advice based on your knowledge of the buyer and your subject-matter expertise.

For example, giving suggestions to solve their pain points by offering them your product.

Then confirm recommendations with examples of previous customers who had similar problems solved with your product.

Solve and empathise with prospect’s objections

Finding and solving prospect’s objections is a part of the sales process.

But in relationship selling you have to give prospects time to explain themselves, so be patient and honest.

If you’re concerned about objections prospects bring up then be truthful as it’s more reassuring.

Asking buyers the following will help find out why they are worried:

• What’s stopping them from buying
• What are they anxious about
• What they wish was different about the product

Then, once they’ve answered, make sure to repeat what they said back to them:

• To make sure you heard right
• Proves you were paying attention
• Shows you truly care

Then show empathy and ask more questions to make sure you fully understand the prospect’s objections.

Remember when responding to prospects, be patient, you’re both on the same team.

Find solutions to prospect’s objections

Don’t think of negotiations as a win or lose game because this will damage trust and force the other to act selfishly.

And if they think you’ve taken advantage of them, your long-term relationship is over.

Instead, a win for your prospect is a win for you because you’re both trying to find the best outcome.

So respond to prospect’s objections by being prepared with certain offers like:

• Extra help
• Better payment terms
• The option to call for help any time

Because compromising shows prospects you’re on their team and they will offer something in return.

Provide value after closing deals

Stay in touch with customers after they sign the contract because you’re not only interested in their money but their success.

So reach out every few months or every quarter, with:

• Ebooks, articles, podcasts or other things of interest
• An invite to a company event
• An offer to feature in a LinkedIn Pulse or blog post
• Follow up about the product and any questions or concerns
• A Congratulations on a recent accomplishment
• A Happy Holidays message

Because keeping in touch with customers deepens relationships and increases the chances of them remaining customers.

And for big account customers, go further:

• Go out to a dinner or fun outing
• Plan a yearly, biannual or quarterly account review
• Send tickets to a local performance
• Invitation for an office tour
• Help executives from each side meet

Building relationships in sales

Relationship selling is simple, always think about the long-term.

The following are different ways to use relationship selling techniques in your sales process:

Always be honest with customers

Dishonesty kills business relationships so never mislead customers with false information or by holding important details back.

They will respect you if you tell them something isn’t right before they find out for themselves.

Always check-in with contacts and customers

Always be a presence for clients by interacting on social media, sending value-adding emails.

Even paying attention to personal life details so you can ask about kids, past-times, goals, etc.

Go beyond contact’s expectations

Go over and beyond people’s expectations and they will be loyal to you.

For example, getting your contact tickets to an annual industry event they asked for but also arranging a private meet-and-greet with the speaker.

Follow-through on commitments

Meet every due date and commitment, like sending emails you promised by Friday even if they don’t check their inbox until Sunday.

Everytime you stick to your word and don’t make contacts wait, it boosts your trustworthiness.

Give exclusive perks

Make customers feel good by:

• Telling them you’re grateful for their business
• Asking what you can do to make them happy
• Giving them discounts
• Even sending them goodies

Because everyone loves getting the special treatment.

Conclusion

A sale happens once but a relationship lasts with a prospect can last forever.

So follow the tips mentioned above and build relationships with customers so you can cross-sell and upsell better.

The results will be more revenue, smashing quotas and top performance in sales.

Now it’s over to you.

Tell me how you build relationships with customers and how it’s benefitted you.

Let me know in the comment section below.