As the name implies, Relationship Selling is focused on building and nurturing relationships with customers. Sales is a hard nut to crack, especially in the B2B marketplace. A human touch, however, helps build relationships and develop trust which can be a powerful competitive advantage. This strategy is usually applied to longer B2B sales cycles as it involves expensive purchases of products and services as decision-makers need time to evaluate the products against the competition, understand its viability to make an educated purchase decision.
Often, sales representatives are eager to close the deal as quickly as possible and miss focusing on building a rapport with the customer. Though this challenge leads to target achievement in the short-term, it is not highly effective for long-term revenue from returning customers
On priority, discussing the features, benefits, and pricing of the products/services is vital, but by empathizing with the customer sales professionals can break the ice to build trust to help secure sales and improve retain customers.
Why does it matter?
Market research from Gallup indicates;
82% of B2B decision-makers feel sales representatives are not prepared enough to deliver a sales pitch.
68% of B2B customers feel lost because of a lack of empathy from the sales representative.
Only 46% of B2B customers agree that vendors successfully deliver on their promises.
So, how can you improve your selling skills?
Best practices for relationship selling
Be an active listener
Actively listening to your buyers is the key to a successful sales story. When sales professionals meaningfully engage with their prospects, they can understand and evaluate customer challenges and business requirements better. Subsequently, they can provide customized solutions that can be effectively pitched to their prospects to close deals quickly and creating lasting relationships.
Personalize your communications
For your sales strategy to work effectively, you need to personalize communication with your prospect. Spark a conversation that revolves around the common interests or learns about your prospect’s interest through social media and build a rapport with them in innovative ways.
Build trust with honesty and data-driven facts
Building trust is a critical factor in nurturing the customer relationship in the sales process. Hence, deliver what you promise else you risk losing the customer and your reputation. Be honest about the capabilities of your products/services, pricing, and contract details from the initial stage.
Add value with social selling
B2B sales cycles take several months or even a year to complete. During this period, sales representatives can nurture and add value to their potential customer interaction by engaging on social media.
Statistics by Forbes reveal:
- 84% of CEOs and VPs use social media to make a purchase decision.
- 55% of B2B buyers search for information on social media.
- 78% of sales representatives who use social media in their sales strategy outsell their peers.
Growing Businesses can opt for free CRM for small businesses, with a basic feature set, available online or invest in some of the comprehensive sales CRM software options to pull sales reports that offer data-driven solutions to your potential customers to facilitate lasting business relationships.
