Whatโs a better way to sell? Relationship selling.
In relationship selling, you form a deep relationship with your prospect, benefiting both of you in the long term. Instead of selling the product and never contacting them again, you stay in touch and give them personalized recommendations that help them improve the bottom line at their business.
They get to extract value, while you get to exceed quota.
In his book Relationship Selling, Jim Cathart writes, โRelationship selling is a form of selling, not merely a type of relationship. The purpose of it is to help other people at a profit to you. When you are truly helping, you deserve to be well compensated for your product or service.โ
In other words, relationship selling is all about being helpful โ with the ultimate goal of providing value and retaining the customer, guaranteeing revenue down the line.
In this post, weโll cover what relationship selling is, go over a few examples, and share a few top tips for nailing the relationship selling process.
In relationship selling, rapport-building between the rep and the buyer are emphasized more than the features or price of the offering. To build rapport, sales reps typically practice active listening to successfully uncover prospectsโ needs and form a relationship.
HubSpot Research reports that a good portion of sales organizations use pre-written sales enablement materials such as email templates (53%) and call scripts (39%). If yours is one of those organizations, it couldnโt be more important to actively listen and tailor your pitch to develop a relationship.
In fact, 70% of B2B customers expect in-depth personalization, making it a critically important facet of relationship-building.
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If they feel like the experience isnโt personalized, prospects are unlikely to purchase an expensive product. Theyโll feel like theyโre only part of a transaction and not part of a mutually-beneficial relationship.
Thatโs why youโll want to steer clear of transactional selling. Itโs often quick and un-personalized, which is why itโs fallen out of favor at most B2B organizations.
Transactional selling works well for low-cost, commoditized products, where it doesnโt make sense for the rep to invest in getting to know their buyers. For example, the clothing and car industries partake in transactional selling.
Relationship selling is better for businesses where thereโs a long sales cycle, and prospects need more touch points before making a purchasing decision. Overall, itโs good for high-cost situations and/or customized solutions, but those arenโt the only scenarios where it applies.
Relationship Selling Examples
You might think of relationship selling as an enterprise B2B strategy, and thatโs certainly not wrong. Any rep working a $50,000+ deal is probably using relationship selling techniques โ think a salesperson for sales automation software or a customized HR app.
But relationship selling also applies to consumer products. How well do you know your tailor? If theyโre smart, theyโll develop a personal relationship with you so your loyalty extends beyond their abilities. What about your favorite hotel? Many nice ones keep meticulous track of their guestsโ preferences, enabling them to create personalized experiences for anyone who returns.
Here are a few more examples where businesses use relationship selling.
Enterprise SaaS Companies
Enterprise SaaS providers such as HubSpot use relationship selling to sell their suite of products. In the first outreach email, the sales rep typically asks for a quick call, and as the nurturing process progresses, they send links to helpful materials and provide free demos.
These companies use a CRM to keep their prospectsโ information on hand. That way, sales reps donโt need to recall customer details from memory, and the relationship develops seamlessly week-after-week.
Healthcare Providers
Healthcare providers use relationship selling, albeit in a different way than B2B businesses. By keeping your medical information on hand, they can tailor your treatments depending on your needs. Even if youโre serviced by a different staff member, your experience remains consistent during each visit.
Subscription Services
In the B2C space, subscription services such as Spotify and Amazon Prime use deep algorithmic personalization to form a relationship with users. Even if you donโt speak to a salesperson, the platform examines your habits and serves you what you need so that you stay subscribed.
Another example would be Google. How many of us use Google for the seamless integration between each of its apps and services? The search engine examines your behavior to deliver personalized content and search results across all of its products.
Local Businesses
Local businesses such as hair salons, coffee shops, bakeries, and tailors (as mentioned above) use relationship selling to keep you coming back. For instance, a hairstylist might remember your previous styling preferences and automatically create that style without you needing to tell them. They might also remember your name and details of your life to forge a personal connection.
The relationship selling process may look different depending on the industry, but no matter what, itโs composed of similar steps. Letโs take a look below.
1. Provide value and insight in every email and phone call.
To quickly gain credibility and establish yourself as a trusted advisor, the very first thing you should do is provide value and insight to your prospect. That might mean reaching out with some helpful suggestions, sending them links to relevant content, making a valuable introduction, or anything else that benefits them.
That way, instead wanting to extract a sale from them, youโre simply being helpful, nurturing the relationship right out of the gate.
2. Learn about your prospectโs challenges, objectives, and professional goals.
Once youโve gotten their attention and proved youโre worth their time, dig into their business challenges, objectives, metrics, and qualifying characteristics, along with their personal and professional goals. This information helps you answer two critical questions:
- Can your product help the prospect?
- Do they have the ability to buy it (authority, budget, appropriate timeline, etc.)?
These two questions cover the basics of sales qualification. Aside from ensuring the prospect is a good fit, it also helps you understand whether you can actually create a mutually beneficial relationship with them.
Donโt force the sale with anyone whoโs not a good fit. You might be able to convince them to buy, but remember: Relationship selling is about the long term. Your customers will be unhappy once they learn theyโve been misled, and youโll face cancellations and/or returns rather than glowing reviews, referrals, and upgrades and cross-sales.
3. Give advice thatโs tailored to their business objectives.
Combine your new knowledge of the buyer with your subject-matter expertise to deliver your suggestions. For example, you might prescribe a strategy thatโll address one of their core pain points (and happens to align with your product).
Back up your recommendations with examples of customers who have been in similar situations. To give you an idea, you might say,
“Customer Y, another company with around [number] of employees in [X space], was facing a similar problem. I advised them to do [such and such]. In [period of time], they saw [quantified results].”
4. Solve for and empathize with your prospectโs objections.
Surfacing and solving your prospectโs blocking points is a necessary part of any sales process. But relationship selling calls for a careful approach. You never want to steamroll your client โ thatโs guaranteed to turn them against you. Instead, give them ample time to explain themselves. Be patient. And above all, answer honestly.
If they have a genuine reason to be concerned, donโt ignore that. Your truthfulness will be more reassuring than a glib response (and will hold up after they get their hands on the product).
To identify the buyerโs worries, ask questions like:
- “Is there anything stopping you from buying?”
- “What are you anxious about?”
- “What do you wish was different about the product?”
Once theyโve answered, say:
“To make sure weโre on the same page, hereโs what I got from that: [Paraphrase their objection]. Is that right? Did I miss anything?”
This proves youโre paying attention and truly care. Then show empathy with something along the lines of, “I hear what youโre saying, and that completely makes sense. Can I ask a few follow-up questions?”
Dig into the prospectโs objection to make sure you fully understand.
Finally, itโs time to respond. Donโt be combative โ you and your prospect are on the same team.
5. Find a win-win solution to the prospectโs objections.
Many salespeople treat the negotiation like a zero-sum game. In other words, if the buyer wins, they lose, and vice versa. This mentality erodes trust and forces your negotiation partner to act selfishly. Plus, if they walk away feeling like youโve taken advantage of them, your long-term relationship is doomed.
The solution? Act like a win for your prospect is a win for you. Together, youโre trying to find the best possible outcome.
To successfully respond to the prospectโs objections, come prepared with several concessions youโre willing to make (like extra implementation help, better payment terms, the option to call you at any time for help, and so on). Proactively extending these compromises will show your prospect youโre on their side and make them likelier to extend concessions of their own.
6. Keep providing value after the closed-won deal.
Donโt disappear from the customerโs life as soon as they sign the contract โ unless you want them to assume youโre only interested in their checkbook and not their success.
Look for reasons to reach out every few months or every quarter, such as:
- An ebook, article, podcast, or other resource theyโd be interested in
- A company event youโd like to invite them to
- A LinkedIn Pulse or blog post youโd like to feature them in
- A follow up to see how they like the product and if they have any questions or concerns
- A “Congrats!” on a recent company or personal accomplishment
- A “Happy Holidays” note
Staying on their radar deepens the relationship and increases the likelihood theyโll stay a customer. And if theyโre a big account, you may want to go even further:
- Take them out to dinner or a fun outing
- Schedule a yearly, biannual, or quarterly account review
- Send them tickets to a local performance
- Invite them to tour your office
- Coordinate a meeting between one of their executives and yours
So, how do you build a relationship in sales?
The main principle underpinning relationship selling is simple: Always think about the long-term impact of your actions. Here are several ways you can incorporate relationship selling techniques into your sales process.
1. Be honest with your customers at all times.
Dishonesty is kryptonite to business relationships. Make sure youโre never misleading your customers, either by giving them false information or withholding crucial details. Youโll earn their respect by telling them something isnโt right before they find out for themselves.
2. Consistently check-in with your contacts and customers.
Be a continued presence for your clients. Interact with them on social media, send them value-added emails, and pay attention to the details of their personal lives so you can ask about their kids, past-times, goals, etc.
3. Exceed your contact’s expectations.
If you want to secure someoneโs loyalty, blow past their expectations. To give you an idea, perhaps you told your contact youโd get them tickets to your annual industry event. And you do โ but in addition to the tickets, you also arrange a private meet-and-greet with a speaker you know they look up to.
4. Follow-through on your commitments.
Do your best to meet every due date and commitment. Maybe you said youโd send an email connecting them to your contact by Friday. Itโs 6 p.m. and you know theyโre not checking their inbox until Sunday morning โ but that doesnโt mean you can wait. Every time you keep your word, you bolster your trustworthiness.
5. Provide exclusive perks.
Make your customers feel good. Tell them youโre grateful for their business, ask what you can do to make them happy, give them discounts, and if possible, send them swag. Everyone loves being treated like theyโre special.
Relationship Selling is the Better Way to Sell
A sale is a one-time event, but a relationship lasts long after the prospect signs on the dotted line. With these techniques, youโll build relationships with your customers thatโll allow you to cross-sell and upsell later without sacrificing the relationship. As a result, youโll bring in more revenue, exceed quota, and shine as a top performer in your sales team.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on December 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.