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Here Is To Relationships and Sales

Guest post by: Tibor Shanto

Article Overview: Beware the smiling face of the relationship in sales. Today's friend may not be tomorrow's butterfly.

Here Is To Relationships and Sales

I guess Valentines Day is a good day to talk about relationships, with all the flowers, candy and wine marking the relationship between lovers and strangers at times. But in sales, relationships are fleeting and deceitful at the best of times. One dictionary defines relationship as follows:

The relation connecting or binding participants in a relationship

Sounds great, that's because the sales reps read the above as connecting participants. What a lovely image, participants, two equals in a journey of positive eventuality, connected by the value of their newly minted relationship with their prospect. In fact the power of this connection is so strong, that the relationship transforms the prospect to client, a customer. Wow, like the caterpillar to a butterfly, what a beautiful thing, and it even comes with a commission.

Sadly, the prospect (yes soon the customer) reads the definition and reads it only as binding participants. Not bad, binding, still ripe with possibility, why so downbeat. Well let's see what the same dictionary says about binding:

a: to make secure by tying b: to confine, restrain, or restrict as if with bonds c: to put under an obligation - binds himself with an oath d: to constrain with legal authority

While I have friends who would call that love, none of them are in sales.

Time and time again reps say they won the deal because of the "great relationship" they had with the prospect. And all it took to court that relationship and turn that prospect to a customer was a small discount, not much larger than your company's margin on the deal, and you even get to pay commission just to make sure the company makes no money at all.

But hey, you got a customer, the rep is happy, and instead of an 18 month payback, you have to wait 30 months, it's only a year, we have a relationship, we have a happy customer, let's move on to creating the next relationship.

Time flies, Victoria Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, hey rep time to renew your relationship. Off he goes in his car, it's all good, we have a re-lay-shon-ship!

But wait why the long face George? What do you mean they didn't renew, what happened to your relationship? What do you mean we lost on price, we gave them a discount, you said you they loved you, you have a re-lay-shon-ship? Why did they go with them?

Maybe it's not the caterpillar and the butterfly, but Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde.

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Article Tags: executon, relationships, renbor, sales



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