The Art and Science of Building a Sales Relationship
Mario Martinez, Jr., CEO & Founder at Vengreso
Today’s sales professional is all about the hustle, the sophisticated automation cadence, the mass emails. Whatever happened to inspiring a buyer by building a relationship? Now more than ever before, it’s essential to re-evaluate our engagement approach. How does today’s modern seller tap into the art and science of building a sales relationship?
How to access targets accounts through your network
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 84% of B2B decisions start through a referral. If you want to access target accounts through referrals, here are three simple strategies to get started:
- Start warm. Referrals will come easiest from your immediate network, and then your extended network, including your company and social circles. Use an app like LinkedIn and Nudge.ai for relationship discovery, that is, to see whom you know in common (a mutual connection) with a prospective buyer or for an “in” at an account.
- Ask for introductions. How to ask for an introduction is sometimes tricky, but there are several strategies you should consider. The key principles to keep in mind are to be concise, direct, and clear.
- Name drop. Should you decide to go direct, you might want to mention people you know in common. That can help add trust and further social proof to your interaction right away.
In combination, these strategies should help you find and facilitate referrals more effectively over time, so they can become a core, predictable part of your sales strategy.
How to measure a relationship to avoid slipped deals
The nightmare of every sales leader is when a deal you are convinced will close doesn’t. The missed quota or the underwhelming quarter go hand-in-hand with slipped deals. And this often ties into how strong your relationships are at an account.
My overall advice is don’t be single-threaded. One of the best ways to not let our deals slip is to ensure that you have multiple threads into an account. Ideally you should identify more than one key stakeholder with whom you need to form a relationship. And when asking for referrals, see if you might be able to get a couple points of entry into an account.
To read the complete article, The Art and Science of Building A Sales Relationship, visit Quotable.com.
