The Myth Of Relationship Selling Revealed At Last

The second you quit being the 'best deal' for your customer, he'll drop you like a hot potato. Regardless of how many lunches you've bought him or birthdays you've remembered.

Every business we've ever consulted tells us the same thing about their sales force. They say that their industry is different from all the others and the only effective way for their salespeople to sell is to build buddy-buddy relationships with their prospects and customers. We hear it from printers, bankers, jewelers, accountants, industrial equipment manufacturers, office equipment distributors...and every other industry that sells stuff.

The argument usually goes something like this: "You see, in our industry, people put a lot of thought into this type of decision. They just don't go out and buy from whoever has the prettiest advertisements. As a matter of fact, we still have many of the same customers from when my grandfather owned the business. Now their grandsons buy from us. You just can't change these things overnight."

Relationship Selling Is A Myth. Like all myths, there are some elements of truth to it. Yes, it's true that your customers should like you. Yes, it's true that you can't necessarily influence big buying decisions overnight. But get one thing perfectly clear - your customers buy from you for one reason: they believe you have "the best deal."

Now their definition of what's the best deal may be different from the next person's. But generally, it has a lot to do with a combination of things like convenience, quality, consistency, service, and price. Usually, about 80% of a given target market will have the same needs, the same problems they want solved, and the same attitudes about buying. If you can solve their problems in a cost effective way, then getting their business is just a matter of staying in front of their face long enough to let them know you have the answers they need.

Don't Manage Cherries, Manage Trees!

The cherry tree is a useful sales analogy. Like a fruit tree, sales prospects must be cultivated in a certain way if they are to bear fruit. The problem is that most salespeople spend 80% of their time managing leads and trying to build relationships...managing each cherry on the tree. If the prospect doesn't happen to be 'ripe' at the exact moment the sales rep makes the call, the prospect is forgotten. Goes rotten. At best, he gets the annoying monthly phone call from the salesperson that invariably says, "You ready to move on those widgets yet?"

In the MYM system, you spend your prospecting efforts on the entire tree. You provide the tree with light, water, and nutrients - and it bears fruit. You provide your entire target market of prospects with information, education and knowledge until it becomes self-evident to them that you are the only logical choice when it comes to your products or services.

By the time the prospect figures out that you are the best deal, he doesn't really care who YOU are. He only cares what you have to offer HIM. When you finally sit down face-to-face, it will be to discuss details of the sale - not to 'persuade' him to do anything.

Rich Harshaw is the founder of the Monopolize Your Marketplace system and CEO of Y2Marketing Business Marketing Strategies

In The News:

---

NEW YORK, Sept 06, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Pershing Square ...
MarketWatch - 8 hours ago
September 5, 2008 The Honorable Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Secretary United States Department of the Treasury 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, ...

Biggart to step down as dean of UC Davis management school
Bizjournals.com, NC - Sep 5, 2008
The dean of the Graduate School of Management at University of California Davis will step down in July 2009 after six years of leading the school. ...
UC Davis Business School Dean to Step Down MarketWatch
UC Davis business school dean to return to teaching Sacramento Bee
UC-Davis business dean to step down next July Bizjournals.com
Sacramento Beeall 19 news articles

FireRescue1
Gustav Victims Urged To Contact FEMA, Register For Disaster Aid
WDSU, LA - 8 hours ago
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has activated measures to help people who are coming home find a place to stay. If residents can’t return due to ...
Hot spots: News from around the world Chicago Sun-Times
FEMA may cover hotel costs for hurricane evacuees The Associated Press
FEMA to cover hotels for those with damaged homes Houston Chronicle
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - KATCall 478 news articles

Company managing Cosco Busan wants to plead no contest in oil ...
San Jose Mercury News,  USA - Sep 5, 2008
Fleet Management Ltd. said in a filing in federal court in San Francisco Thursday it wants to resolve the criminal case, avoid a costly trial and steer ...
Cosco Busan operating firm offers plea San Francisco Chronicle
Cosco Busan operator offers to plea no contest San Jose Mercury News
all 42 news articles

Earthtimes (press release)
Ospraie Management to close flagship fund
BusinessWeek - Sep 3, 2008
By JOE BEL BRUNO Hedge fund Ospraie Management LLC will close its flagship fund after suffering big losses in August on wrong-way commodities bets, ...
Ospraie Management closes main hedge fund guardian.co.uk
Hedge Funds Get Rattled As Investors Seek Exits Wall Street Journal
Lehman Brothers and the Cost of Multitasking Wall Street Journal Blogs
Bloomberg - Forbesall 313 news articles

Telecommuting means change in management style
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 1 hour ago
And some owners are discovering that allowing employees to telecommute can require a different management style, and some basic trust. ...

Wall Street Journal
South Florida Water Management District prepares for Hurricane Ike
The News-Press, FL - 11 hours ago
West Palm Beach, FL — Already awash in rainfall from tropical storms Fay and Hanna, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is bracing for ...
Video: Hanna Hits Carolina Shore AssociatedPress
Double Whammy? Residents Prep for Hanna, Ike ABC News
Hanna heads for SouthCoast, then -- Yikes! -- maybe Ike SouthCoastToday.com
Turn to 10.com - WTOLall 4,290 news articles

Boston Globe
Need for disaster management
Economic Times, India - 9 hours ago
Yes, experience counts a lot during disasters, but India can’t afford to adopt unscientific disaster management modules to minimise impacts of repeated ...
Video: Indian Flood Refugees Settle at Camps AssociatedPress
Flood-hit refuse to leave home, officials nonplussed Hindustan Times
Disaster audit Times of India
Sky News - Bloombergall 2,044 news articles

New management to pilot Dalton Airport
The Daily Citizen, GA - 2 hours ago
By Charles Oliver At midnight tonight, management of the Dalton Municipal Airport will change hands for the first time in almost 30 years. ...

Public comment invited on NT magpie geese management
ABC Online, Australia - 6 hours ago
The Territory Government is calling for public input into the development of a five-year management plan to protect the state's magpie goose population. ...

management - Google News