By Karen Wessels, co-founder of VA Connect & co-founder of SnappSales
The importance of building relationships in business cannot be stated enough, because people buy from people. You need to be authentic in sales, you need to be yourself. Your prospect will come to trust you and that link that you’ve built is called relationship building.
I had the privilege of attending a business improvement workshop this past weekend and what do you think was one of the main pointers that kept popping up? Relationship building.
As a business owner you should be focused on spending 65 – 75% of your daily activities on building relationships. This means focusing your energy on getting to know your clients and prospects better - forming lasting relationships. It costs as much money, if not more, to garner new quality clients than it does to keep current clients happy. Sure, it does take effort to retain current clients and keep them happy, however, this should be part of your daily routine – keeping existing clients happy whilst forging relationships with new ones.
As a business owner you should be focused on spending 65 – 75% of your daily activities on building relationships.
Even the start of the sales process should be focused towards a long-term commitment. Don’t be scared to pick up the phone, get chatting to people. You don’t know what you’re going to learn or to whom they may introduce you.
Add value where you can. Take your client on a customer experience journey that will have them coming back for more. And more importantly they’ll be your brand advocates, singing your praises to everyone they meet. Put your brand in their hands. The impact of the message is more powerful when it comes from your fans.
Why is it important to build relationships?
- It makes the conversion of the sale easier
- Your clients become your brand advocates
- You retain your clients for longer
- They make sure that you improve your business at every turn
- You are always your authentic self and remain true to the vision of your business
Don’t be misguided, sales can be considered as part of the soft skills family, it’s not always part of a hard sell. Especially when you focus on “pull” sales vs “push” sales. This is because nowadays sales is better geared towards relationship building, more so now than in previous years.
The next time you’re on the phone with a prospect, care to find out how they are doing, how their day has been. You’ll be surprised at the heart warming response you’ll get!
Karen Wessels is the co-founder and COO of VA Connect, a South African virtual assistant platform that provides outsourced administrative support; and is also the co-founder of SnappSales, a company that generates quality sales leads for its clients. Prior to establishing both her companies, Karen spent over 10 years in different sales, marketing & admin support roles. This experience has equipped her with the invaluable skills required to run her two successful business ventures. Follow Karen on her Personal Website | Twitter | Facebook | Google+
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