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How to Leverage Relationship Selling through Education Based Marketing

Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Relationship selling is all about establishing and developing mutually beneficial relationships. To achieve this goal requires that you as a professional sales person freely provide value without thinking of immediate reward or compensation. In other words, making the sale is at the bottom of your list while helping your potential qualified customer is at the top of your list.

How to Leverage Relationship Selling through Education Based Marketing

Relationship selling is all about establishing and developing mutually beneficial relationships. To achieve this goal requires that you as a professional sales person freely provide value without thinking of immediate reward or compensation. In other words, making the goal of a sale or to increase sales is at the bottom of your list while helping your potential qualified customer is at the top of your list. The question to be answered is How do I do this differently because my competitors are also engaged in relationship selling?

The 30,000 ft. answer is Education Based Marketing (EBM). When you engage in education based marketing you are differentiating yourself because you are a unique individual with unique experiences. Only you know what you know and that knowledge can help your potential qualified customer (a.k.a. prospect).

Of course, you may be thinking that you already educate your customers and your probably do. However, your conscious and subconscious thoughts are all about making the sale first. Education is part of your efforts to make the sale.

When you engage in education based marketing, the sale is not at the top of your conscious or subconscious thoughts, but rather how can you help this person. To do this, means you must really know the value of what you do as well as the needs being faced by your customer.

Also when you practice this approach to sales, you may have to violate one of the cardinal rules in sales and that is do not give anything away for free. Given that the 21st century through the Internet is full of information and knowledge, you may have to provide even greater value through your sharing of knowledge. This is why when you are utilizing this approach you must have clearly identified your target market, understand their known and even unknown needs and look to how you can help them.

Now imagine for a moment that you are engaged in relationship selling. You offer something for free and then given something else free of even greater value. Provided you have positioned the giveaway in the right context your potential qualified customer can experience first hand the value that you bring to the table.

TAKE ACTION SALES COACHING TIP: The best way to engage in relationship selling is to provide greater value than anyone else in the marketplace. Take some time, research this approach and then put together a plan of action so that you can truly be that Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits.

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Article Tags: 21st century, beneficial relationships, cardinal rules, ebm, education, experiences, greate, marketing, professional sales person, relationship selling, subconscious thoughts, target market



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Local Chamber of commerce - I would suggest something that has been under the radar for about 6 months now that I've been using for about a year and there is nothing like it.. Success On Contact it is referred to as a Permission Based Relationship Marketing Software. It has all the basics like list management, contact management, campaign management and such, but also integrates with inbound and outbound VoIP like Vonage, Skype and J2 Communications ( will actually automatically attach voicemails to contact record with play button), or create a new contact record if it does not recognise the inbound number calling. It also integrates with just a few clicks with web based voicebroadcasting services. Let's see what else...oh, internal email and newsletter client, newsletter and pdf post card and sales campaign creation. It also automatically pulls leads from your websites into your contact manager without you lifting a finger and notifies you within 60 seconds to your desktop that you have a lead and it is automatically databased according to advertisement, product/ service campaign so you can track seamlessly where your leads are coming from. This is my favorite feature, because thru out the day, my recontact due icon pops up to let me know I have a new lead, I just click on the new name in the recontact due and pops up the full record all filled in (no wasted time entering data), I click on the Skype button (I use Skype..but it could be your land line..etc.) and presto, I'm talking to my prospective client in less than 2 minutes from the time they opted for more information. and many times while they are on my site. Typing notes in the contact record along the way and engaging them immediately in my sales process.
webinars on Autoreponders - Evan, putting it that way you may have a point - the effort doesn't seem to pay off. If you could score webinars with people you profile I can see word getting around and that driving traffic to your site and exposing them to the content you already have on the site. Based on the types of businesses approaching you to do these webinars you could also have them set the whole thing up and all you are doing is exposing it to the group. Example a webinar on Autoresponders and Email Marketing. I'm sure there are companies out there that will do the whole setup for you.
Ivy League vs. Affordable school - To play devils Advocate .... Prestigious school vs. Education I can afford? Does going to a prestigious school gaurantee success? I'm sure it helps - imagine the contacts made - powerful I assume. Also there is the pressure of being an alma mater of a school where everyone else is driven to succeed by thier parents. But, what if you got the "Education you can afford". It's still education. You are forced to analyze, engage in relationships, manage your school mates, and deliver on deadlines. What's the common denominator when you get out of school? Is it the ability to take action? The ability to see the big picture and then take the necessary actions to bring a project to completion? There's that action word again! what do you think?
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