Relationship Selling

The 1st skill of relationship selling is all about you and how you present yourself to your prospect. In a word, posture. In this article I will be writing in the context of having a good phone posture but of course these points can be applied to any situation.

You have about 10 seconds in your first live contact to start building the relationship. Introduce yourself a.s.a.p. and always have a valid business reason for calling. Answer the age old WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) question. This is where you plant the seeds for your sales follow up. Are you confident? Let them feel your confidence; your voice projects into the phone. The only way to achieve this is to know what you are talking about.

Be prepared. This is best achieved by having a dress rehearsal. Prepare your introduction. Sit in a quiet room and role play as though you are talking to your customer. You may even want to go so far as to write it out. This is not to say that you will read it during your call. You will have gone over it enough times that you have committed the gist of it to memory. This way when you are speaking to your customer you will sound confident because you are comfortable with your material and will be more open to hearing what they have to say.

When giving a one on one you have several ways of using body language but on the phone all you have is your voice. It is harder to communicate with voice alone. Your tone is extremely important. Do you have a pleasant tone of voice? Are you being clear? Do you sound sincere? Do you convey empathy? Do you sound confident? Is there a smile in your voice? If not, put a sticky with a smiley face in front of you. Believe it or not your smile will project itself. Have a positive attitude and put your ego aside. Particularly when speaking over the phone.

A positive attitude is projected over the phone. They are looking for direction so you need to be the leader. Position yourself as a professional. Be friendly but do not engage in idle chit chat. You can be compassionate and sympathetic to their problems and challenges without hearing their entire life history. Small talk does take place but maintain a business atmosphere and have your objective with a time frame to set it in. There is no need to be rushed, simply walk through the steps to move the process forward.

Patience is a virtue. Impatience is detrimental to sales lead conversions. Be genuine, project sincerity. They will pick up on any falseness. It’s nice to share a bit about yourself if it shows you have something in common. They will be able to relate to you and this will go a long way towards developing trust. When on the phone it is easy to be distracted. Take notes to keep you present. No multi-tasking! Taking good notes will also help you with your sales follow up. To recap, you are confident and positive. You are prepared. You are present. You are sincere and compassionate. You are a leader and a professional.

Relationship selling is all about having a good posture and preparation. If you have a good posture and have prepared well your meeting will be successful. And the stage will be set for your sales follow up.

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