As anyone watching The Apprentice can see, people buy from people they feel they have a connection with, so building relationships is key.
By Eoghan McDermott of The Careers Clinic
A client came to me this week looking for sales training because his boss was doing a Bill Cullen and telling him it’s now part of my job. This guy is a consulting engineer so it came as quite the surprise when his boss told him this.
He’s not alone. Selling has become part of lots of people’s jobs over the last year of so.
However, the type of selling he (and if you find yourself in the same situation, you) should be focusing on isn’t the hard sell. Real selling comes from relationships. As we saw on the Apprentice, people buy from people they like. When you think sales; don’t start with the product, start with the person.
If you want to sell to a specific company, look for connections into the organisation, suppliers or customers you share, friends or colleagues who can introduce you to your potential customer. When you meet them, remember one thing above all; you are there not to sell, but to learn.
Gather information about the company and the person, find out what they believe makes them different, what their goals are and what makes the person you met tick. You should leave the meeting knowing the individual, not just the business. Go back to the office and think about how you can help them. If you can, great, if you can’t don’t go back with something that won’t be of benefit to them.
From then on, build the relationship; drop them the odd mail, send them something that could interest their business, keep in touch, go back to them with ideas. Good sales fall from solid relationships, they are not choked out of strangers.
Eoghan McDermott is Head of the Careers Clinic in the Communications Clinic and is the author of The Career Doctor- How to Get and Keep the Job You Want.
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