Revenues in Relationships

How are your relationships with your prospects? Are they pleased to see you coming or do they avoid your phone calls? Do you remember the names of their children or do you not even know if they have any? These questions may seem several steps away from “how many can I ship to you?” but many times that is exactly the point. It is widely known that people seek refuge in relationships and, therefore, are most likely to do business with people they know. You can increase your effectiveness as a sales professional by understanding the following: people are even more likely to do business with people they like.

The importance of creating friendships in sales does not imply that you must be ingratiating, insincere or fawning. Certainly, these traits can be easily identified and would have the opposite effect of making your customers dislike you. If you want to be sure that you always leave your clients with a pleasant feeling about you it is necessary to be polite, gracious and kind. To create a relationship that allows your prospects to think of you as a friend, you must pay close attention to the impression you leave behind you.

Take the following example: Johnny has been very successful in his network marketing business and is trying to recruit more and more people. He has no idea why, lately, his recruiting efforts have gone south. Let’s look at his approach. Johnny usually starts with something like “you wouldn’t believe how well this is going for me. I mean, you don’t even know.” He fails to notice his prospect rolling his eyes.

“I took my wife Ginny on the best vacation ever last year; I could never do that when I worked 9-5 like you still do.” Now, he’s getting personal. “I mean, honestly buddy, I don’t know how you’re still doing it. I wanted to jump out of a window when I was strapped into my cubicle every day.” Right about now, his prospect would gladly jump out of a window to get away from him. “I mean, haven’t you learned a single thing from watching me? It’s your turn to break away from the corporate grind. What do you say, will you come to my meeting on Friday?” Would you?

Action step: Assess your sales presentations, are you at all obnoxious? As much as you want to get the sale, you will experience more success by being more amicable. Adjust your pitch if necessary.

There were many ways Johnny could have gotten his point across without seeming unpleasant and obnoxious. Instead of creating a feeling that he was better than others, he could have simply expressed an interest in sharing his knowledge. Many successful network marketers have increased their rates of recruiting by taking on the role of a mentor. Instead of chiding prospects and calling them lazy, these entrepreneurs talk about their success as something which their prospects deserve. They create a feeling of privilege to learn at their side.

In a world filled with competition, you cannot afford to make enemies of your prospects. While it is not necessary for you to become anything other than yourself, you should make the effort to present yourself as a person your prospects can like. Without this basic relationship, you will find your sales endeavors much more difficult.