Category Archives: Relationships
Another Opening, Another Show
Another Opening, Another Show—it’s another way to approach your sales call. Each sales conversation presents another opportunity to capture interest, to learn more about your customer, to communicate your marketing message, handle objections, and gain commitment. And then the cycle … Continue reading
Buzz about the Challenger Sales Rep
There’s been a lot of buzz lately among sales professionals and sales leaders about the characteristics/qualities of a great sales rep. In fact, a recent Harvard Business Review blog titled “Selling Is Not About Relationships” caught my attention. Anytime a … Continue reading
How to Learn about Your Customers
It has been said that business success is 85% people skills and 15% technical knowledge. In the sales profession, this may be more heavily skewed towards those interpersonal skills. When you ask sales people if they feel it is important … Continue reading
Selling Truths
Have you ever walked away from a sales situation—whether it is buying a car or an appliance—because you did not trust the sales person? Conversely, have you ever bought something because a friend recommended it? Selling is part of life. … Continue reading
Business Relationships
How odd it is to hear that a sales person does not want to ruin the “relationship” with a customer by asking for the business. It seems that some sales people don’t know the difference between a friendship and a … Continue reading
Actions Speak Louder than Words
It’s been said that actions speak louder than words. That’s why UTAs are so powerful. Have you ever heard of UTAs? Undoubtedly you would remember if you were the recipient of one. UTAs are Unexpected Thoughtful Acts. They usually don’t … Continue reading
Defining a Good Business Relationship
We often talk about how important relationships are in business, especially in sales, but how do we know if the relationships we have with our customers and colleagues are truly substantive ones? It seems that many, including sales people, often … Continue reading
Customers Reveal Only 20%
The other day I read a statistic about selling—that customers reveal only 20% of what they are thinking. So how do you get them to share that other 80%? It would probably help to figure out why people don’t share all their thoughts. After all, Thinking Like a Customer is our mantra. There are probably several reasons customers want to keep certain thoughts to themselves:
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Relationships in Business
It’s been said that business success is 75% people skills and 25% technical skills. Nowhere is this more evident than in sales. However, few if any sales reps receive training on how to build business relationships with those people with whom they do not naturally connect. If people skills are so important, why aren’t more companies providing this kind of critical training for their sales reps when we know we don’t naturally connect with but 25% of the people we meet? Continue reading
5 Things Employees Want from their Manager
In a recent blog (Knowing What is Needed is Not Enough) I talked about managerial competence, which began with a discussion based on a study that concluded 70% of business managers are perceived as incompetent. That discussion about managers has made me remember a talk I heard over 25 years ago. The speaker was Don Beveridge and what he said was so powerful, and it made such an impression on me, that I remember it in detail all these years later. Don was describing what employees want from their managers. Continue reading
