More and more, relationships are becoming the difference in sales. People buy from people. Forming a relationship with your customer is an investment of time and effort. When we meet or exceed our customer’s expectations, we build the relationship. When we fail to meet our customer’s expectations, our competition gains the advantage.

Sales reps who are customer-driven dismiss the idea that you only develop relationships to make a sale (that’s Win/Lose behavior). Even if there is no immediate opportunity in sight, customer-driven sales reps take the time to develop relationships, and exhibit sincerity in doing so. Successful business relationships are based on Value, Competence, Trust, and Propriety.

Value

Communicating value was discussed in the Fall 2001* issue of The Key where we described how sales reps must earn the right (initially and continually) to have the customer invest their time and money with them. During your conversations with the customer you must identify exactly what the customer can expect to gain by doing business with you. Quantify business value payback in order to justify an investment in your solution and state when the customer will be able to receive the value. Provide proof that the customer will attain the value by providing references and examples.

Successful reps articulate and quantify the value their products/services can bring to the customer — they do not wait for the customer to figure this out on their own!

Competence

We must also demonstrate competence — the customer’s perception of your skill, knowledge, and experience with respect to them or their business. Competence addresses the customer’s question, “Can this person or company help me by doing what they say they can do?”

Personal Conditioning during the Planning phase of the sales cycle is a way to help us acquire competence. Personal Conditioning requires that we take time to understand our company and products, the prospect’s company and products, the industry, and the competition. You can demonstrate that competence to your customer by completing and implementing an organized and logical sales approach, conveying an understanding of your customers and their business, demonstrate your research and knowledge, substantiate your capabilities and involve team members correctly and on a timely basis.

The perception of competence is gained over time. Every time you demonstrate your knowledge of your company, the customer, the industry, and the competition, you will gain credibility and enhance your business relationships.

Trust

Like competence, trust in you by your customer develops over time as a result of the specific approaches and efforts you undertake. Trust is the customer’s confidence in your integrity, ability, and intent with respect to them or their business. Trust is established and built from creating a win/win, customer-driven relationship. Providing a letter of recommendation; displaying honesty, candor, empathy and respect; and showing concern for your customer’s time and issues are all ways that you as a sales professional can facilitate the development of trust between you and your customer.

Propriety

The last basis of the foundation to forming a successful business relationship is propriety. Propriety is the customer’s perception of the appropriateness or properness of your actions with respect to them or their business. It addresses the customer’s question, “Is this person behaving properly or appropriately?”

Part of exhibiting propriety is in the way you present yourself. Over half of others’ perception of you is based — at least initially — on your appearance. Therefore, take care in your physical appearance, mannerisms, vocabulary, and business etiquette. While each customer is unique in their expectations of you, you will never gain anything by looking sloppy or dressed-down, using poor grammar or vocabulary, using swear words or off-color jokes, using disparaging language, or being crude or impolite.

A second, critical part of demonstrating propriety involves improving your individual adaptability to other people. Not all people are alike; yet, your customers prefer to do business with people who are like themselves. If they’re hard-chargers, they don’t want to do business with social butterflies; if they’re friendly and sociable, they find it difficult to do business with people who push, push, and push.

Conclusion

Forming successful business relationships are established on a foundation of value, competence, trust, and propriety. If you want more information on this skill and others from our High Performance Sales training, please contact us.