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RELATIONSHIP SELLING PART I (BUYING VERSUS BEING SOLD)

Written by: Atul Uchil

Article Overview: Do not sell products, services or commodities. Just establish strong relationships with clients and achieve the coveted status of a trusted advisor. Then, your clients will elect to buy services and/or products from you. Never try to sell them. I know that this sounds deceptively simple. Almost as if one could just sit around and wait for things to happen. Establishing and maintaining trusted client relationships without trying to sell them anything, requires a lot of patience and a constant struggle against the temptation to start selling.

RELATIONSHIP SELLING PART I (BUYING VERSUS BEING SOLD)

BUYING VERSUS BEING SOLD

- People like to buy.
- People hate being sold or being forced to buy.
- People buy from people that they like and trust.

Everyone has encountered the above three statements. You have heard them either verbatim or by means of different words that convey the same or similar meaning.

All people go through a distinctive buying process regardless of whether they are buying groceries, buying consumer goods for their home or making large purchases for their corporations.

- The first stage in this process is to perceive need.
- The second stage is to research alternatives.
- The third stage is to make the purchase (decision).
- The fourth stage is to perform post-purchase analysis.

There is no defined timeframe and/or set of tasks that need to occur in each of these stages.

Sometimes this process is very short. For example, an individual is not going to perform weeks of research on what type lettuce they plan to buy.

Sometimes this process is very long and drawn out. For example, a corporate executive will almost always perform a significant amount of research before buying a five million dollar CRM system for his or her corporation.

Some of you are probably saying, yeah right! I do not go through that process every time I buy. What if I was going out to dinner? I am not thinking through four stages. I just go out and eat.

Well it is my turn to say, “No! You do not just go out and eat.” You go through the process either consciously or subconsciously. Here is how it works.

Perceive Need: I am hungry. There is nothing in my refrigerator. I need to go out and eat.

Research Alternatives: What do I feel like eating today? - Chinese, Mexican, Steak, Italian, Fast food or Pizza.

My clothes have been fitting a little too snug this past few weeks, may be I should avoid fast food.

I like Chinese food, but I had it earlier this week. The Italian restaurant is eight miles away. I can just walk to the Mexican restaurant on the next block; the food is not bad and it is not too pricey either.

Make the Purchase (Decision): I guess am going to have Mexican food for dinner tonight.

Post-Purchase analysis: That burrito is sitting in my stomach like a rock and I feel heartburn coming on. Maybe I should have driven to the Italian place or just stayed in and ordered a pizza. A pizza would have been just as cheap. The Italian place was pricey. However, I would not be suffering heartburn now. OR

That was the best burrito I ever had and I am full. I am glad that I decided to eat Mexican food tonight.

Therefore, it seems apparent that we go through the four stages of buying regardless of what we are buying.

Let us examine these four stages from a corporate perspective. I do not think anyone out there is reading this book with the intent of understanding his or her decision process when choosing a restaurant. At least I hope not.

Stage1 – Perceive Need: The individual decision maker, group of decision makers or corporate management perceives a need.

This perceived need might sometimes be an urgent or critical need, like that perceived because of an existing or imminent crisis.

For example, someone hacked into our systems, our competitor already has it, government regulation dictates it, etc.

At other times, the perceived need may be less urgent.

For example, the existing accounting system is becoming outdated so we would like to update our accounting system soon, we should get more health insurance benefits for our employees, etc.

Regardless of the urgency, when the corporation identifies a need, they usually begin analyzing alternatives. This leads us to:

Stage2 – Research Alternatives: The analysis and research of alternatives is typically (but not always) a documented process within most organizations. Regardless of whether it is formal or informal, written or unwritten, it exists.

For instance, one organization might have a purchase evaluation team that analyses all alternatives and prepares written reports for upper management to decide. In other cases, it might just be one individual, a mid-level or senior manager, who gets multiple quotes before deciding.

Either way, involvement at this stage is very important for you - the sales professional. If you already have a trusted relationship with the sole decision maker, the sole decision maker’s superiors, the organization, or some member of the organization who has a reasonable amount of credibility as a strong influencer, you can rest assured that you (your company) will be one of the factors considered in the analysis of alternatives.

If you do not have the trusted relationship, it is almost too late to try to develop it at this stage. I am not saying that it is impossible to do, as I have seen it done successfully even at this late stage. I am just stating that it is an uphill battle.

I am also stressing the importance of establishing relationships with clients, regardless of whether you think they have a current need for your services or products.

You can rarely predict with a reasonable degree of accuracy when an organization might perceive need.

Stage 3 – Make the Purchase (Decision): The organization issues a purchase order or bill of sale and makes the purchase.

Stage 4 – Post-Purchase Analysis: This is another critical stage in the process. Your relationships with the stakeholders can make or break your deal at this stage. This applies regardless of who makes the purchase or how the purchase was made.

There is always at least one (typically more that one) naysayer within every organization. This person or these persons will question the decision and raise doubts about the effectiveness and performance capabilities of the solution that was purchased. The questions usually raised are:

- Did we really need it?
- Did we perform enough research on the alternatives available in the market?
- Did we get a good deal?

If the person or persons that made the decision were in the buying mode, they will defend the decision as if their life depended on it.

Conversely, if the person or persons that made the decision felt like they were being sold or being pressured to buy, they will defend the decision half-heartedly at best.

Additional information on Relationship Selling can be found in Relationship Selling – The Fine Art of Consultative Sales. ISBN: 1432715003.

Related Articles
  Selling is the Highest Paid Profession
  How not to make a prospecting call
  Sales Force Alignment with Market Strategies
  Business Friendships
  Personal Branding Tip

Article Tags: chinese food, clothes, consumer goods, corporate executive, corporations, eight miles, fast food, groceries, italian restaurant, lettuce, pizza, purchase decision, refrigerator, research alternatives, second stage, third stage, timeframe



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Re: Can you really get google ads for free? - This has A LOT to do with existing relationship you'd already have with the market, too. Honestly, if someone I trust produces a product and I am SOLD on his/her credibility based on their past performance, I don't need to read their sales letter whether it's short or long. It's the same way people buy Mariah Carey's CDs before they even listen to her new album, the same way people know Tom Cruise's new movie will be box office sell out. If there is NO trust simply because we don't know the marketer, then it doesn't matter short or long, it'll all look the same. That's not because what it says on the sales page, but the trust level of its approach.
Re: Is facebook adverts effective? - We have done it for our online live tutoring services. But, I have decided not to use it again because we could know that there were around 250 clicks in a week ,but we could not see capitalise a single student. We targeted UK based 24-30 or something. We actually received a very few (I think around5 out of 250 clicks!) ... They too seem to be Indians and Pakistanis residing in the UK with a full time student visa, which prevents them from taking online lessons from us (then why they clicked our ads and even contacted us mean, I think, they do not going to lose anything!) ... So, I realised that our target market UK based PART TIME ACCA and CIMA students do not use FaceBook to browse ACCA and CIMA related sites although they use FaceBook. So, as our website is for ACCA and CIMA courses, probably it might have been shown in ACCA and CIMA FaceBook groups, where FULL TIME students were browsing it. So, I think it is we, selected the wrong medium .... Not to blame FaceBook I think .... So, it mainly depends on your target market, where they reside and actually from that area/country, truly would your target group see your adverts ? Much to consider ....


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