{"id":6118,"date":"2014-03-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=5366"},"modified":"2020-04-03T18:01:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T22:01:20","slug":"want-make-sales-build-relationships-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/want-make-sales-build-relationships-first","title":{"rendered":"Want to make more sales? Build relationships first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Closing sales can be a challenging, frustrating, and even mysterious process. Every sales person has come across situations where the buyer seemed totally willing to talk and almost ready to buy \u2013 and then stopped returning calls.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, what closes a large deal isn&#8217;t every bell and whistle of your product, but the relationship you have forged with the prospect over time.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to get better at closing sales is to get better at building relationships with the people on the other end of the phone. Even if a sales prospect is eager to hear from your company, your sales people still need to do a good job of creating trust, building rapport, and listening to prospects\u2019 specific needs and business challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Someone recently made a comment on our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/Manage-Your-Leads-2529600\/about\">LinkedIn Group<\/a> that really illustrated the importance of building a strong relationship with prospects.<\/p>\n<p>Our LinkedIn Group member said:<\/p>\n<p>I teach my sales team to always consider the questions that are in the minds of each of their prospects:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can I trust this person?<\/li>\n<li>Are they telling me the truth?<\/li>\n<li>Can their product really help me (Save me time, make me money, or keep aggravation out of my life)?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s really in this for me?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And at the end of the day, we all know that everything usually boils down to having a relationship.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship will take away the trust issues, the price issues, and the implementing issues. It\u2019ll create loyal customers and clients, but here\u2019s the kicker, you don\u2019t have to have the best product or service available. It just needs to be dependable and meet the customer\u2019s immediate needs. Having a relationship shows that your company is reliable.<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have a strong customer relationship, buyers won\u2019t be ready to talk with you. Remember, it\u2019s not about your sales pitch, your well-designed brochures, or your ROI numbers. Building a solid relationship with your prospects is key. If they believe you have their best interests at heart and are not looking to make an immediate sales commission, then the prospect will most likely to hear you out.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to helping you close more sales, having a strong relationship can also help you retain more customers and grow your business. Customers are more likely to keep buying from you and help you grow your business.<\/p>\n<p>Relationships are the key to everything else that happens in the sales process. Build relationships first. Create feelings of trust and rapport. Ask good questions and listen to what the customer says. Empathize with your customers\u2019 unique challenges and look for ways to add value to them. And finally, nurture the sales relationship over time \u2013 continue to follow up and check in often, and offer new insights and business intelligence as part of your discussions.<\/p>\n<p>The most successful B2B sales people know how to show the customer that they are not \u201cjust\u201d sales people, but \u201cindustry peers\u201d who are focused on the challenges facing the customer\u2019s business. By doing these things, you\u2019ll be able to build a stronger sales relationship \u2013 and get closer to closing the sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closing sales can be a challenging, frustrating, and even mysterious process. Every sales person has come across situations where the buyer seemed totally willing to talk and almost ready to buy \u2013 and then stopped returning calls. Ultimately, what closes a large deal isn&#8217;t every bell and whistle of your product, but the relationship you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":34391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Want to make more sales? Build relationships first<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Closing sales can be a challenging, frustrating, and even mysterious process. Every sales person has come across situations where the buyer seemed totally\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/want-make-sales-build-relationships-first\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Want to make more sales? Build relationships first\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Closing sales can be a challenging, frustrating, and even mysterious process. 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