What are three main selling activities that salespeople use to build relationships with customers?

While having the right underlying skills is helpful, your team will only get the best results if they’re put to use throughout the sales process. The following steps will help your reps act on those skills and build stronger customer relationships.

1. Know yourself

When dating, it helps to have an honest understanding of what you bring to the table and what you’re looking for in a potential partner. Likewise, when selling, your reps should already know their (and their product’s) strengths and weaknesses, as well as their sales objectives and goals.

2. Identify the right prospects

The next step is to create a list of prospects that are a good match and are compatible with your reps and their objectives. As powerful as relationship selling is, it takes effort, so it’s important to focus that effort on those prospects that are most likely to convert.

Rather than chasing prospects that don’t match the target profile, look out for those who are similar to your best customers, then qualify them to confirm that they’re worth pursuing.

3. Use active listening

A key part of the relationship is understanding your prospects and their requirements. Although your reps should have done some research before reaching out, they mustn’t assume they know everything about the prospects and the challenges they’re facing. The easiest way to find out is by actively listening to what they have to say.

LinkedIn’s 2020 survey of sales professionals found that active listening is the skill buyers prize most in salespeople. Rather than being distracted by their phone or preparing what they’re going to say next, encourage your sales team to take the time to listen fully to what the prospect says. If they don’t completely understand what they hear, let them know it’s okay to ask questions and clarify what they’ve just said.

Oscar Trimboli, author and host of the Deep Listening podcast Deep, explains there are five levels of listening—the first of which is listening to yourself. If you’re still replaying your last sales call in your head, you’re not going to be able to effectively listen to what the prospect is saying. Only once you’ve cleared that noise will your reps be able to listen to what the prospect has to say (and, perhaps more importantly, what they’re not saying).

4. Adopt a win-win approach

Sales shouldn’t be a zero-sum game wherein the salesperson is the winner and the buyer is the loser. Part of developing a long-lasting relationship is identifying and delivering a win-win result, for both you and your prospect. This is where the principles of honesty and authenticity come in. If it doesn’t look like the prospect will benefit from your product, it’s not going to be a rewarding relationship.

Spend some time analyzing your customers’ competitors. This may not seem like the best use of resources if you’re trying to secure the ‘win’ for just yourself, but changing your attitude to help your client also win will pay off.

This long-term approach requires patience: if the product isn’t right for them now, that doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. By keeping in touch with potential prospects, such as with a drip email campaign, you’ll be top-of-mind when the time is right.

5. Add exceptional value

Teach your reps to look for opportunities to exceed expectations and create value, without expecting anything in return. While this might sound like hard work, the good news is that, if you’ve followed the previous steps, this will be a lot easier. Knowing your prospects and their needs makes it easier to provide genuine and relevant value.

By following this consistently, your reps will soon earn the role of trusted advisor and can provide even more value. David Butter, of Andrew Sobel Advisors, explains why filling the role of trusted advisor is so beneficial:

“Clients in this fast-moving world are desperately seeking people they can have insightful conversations with—rather than receive presentations and me-too recommendations from—people who can be a sounding board, people who can sit at the table and listen, ask insightful questions, and offer independent strategic advice.”

In return, salespeople who can provide that extra service are more likely to win a lifetime customer and become a go-to provider without having to constantly compete on price.

6. Provide ongoing support post-sale

Once your rep has made the sale, that shouldn’t mean that the value (and the relationship) should come to an end.

Nordstrom is renowned for its exceptional customer service; on one occasion, they famously allowed a customer to ‘return’ a set of tires that he hadn’t even bought from them. While this may not make any sense on paper, the fact the story has been so widely spread shows the value of outstanding customer service as a differentiator and has led to many more customer relationships.

More companies are now going beyond customer support and have established customer success teams. These teams are dedicated to helping current customers get the most out of the product. For example, to ensure a cohesive experience for their customers, Falcon.io uses the details from their CRM and pipeline management software to outline each customer’s specific success criteria, based on their journey from lead to customer.

This aligns the company’s sales and customer success teams, and enables closer customer relationships, as reps have a better understanding of their customers’ needs and can map out their ongoing relationship.

By prioritizing their relationships with prospects and customers, salespeople can have a better understanding of their needs, offer more value and build trust. This involves adopting a long-term view and putting the customer’s interests ahead of the sale.

With a foundation based on the solid principles that relationship selling refers to and a sales process that supports strong relationships, your team will have a significant advantage over your competitors.

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A strong pitch, chasing clients, countering objections, defending your product, and closing the sale are all familiar aspects of successful salespeople. Yet, this approach has become increasingly outdated as connections and relationships become ever more powerful.

Fostering strong professional and personal relationships with your clients is now the norm. For many, this may be a time-consuming process, but its benefits are easy to see.

To help increase your sales, we’ve compiled a list of 6 tips that will help you build strong client relationships.

When selling a product, our first instinct is to talk about the product. According to trust-based selling expert Ari Galper, the wrong approach to starting a sales call is a mini-presentation on your company and what it has to offer.

Instead, begin your talk with a conversation around something social and then learn about the problem(s) your client is facing. This way you’ll build rapport first and it’ll be about them, not you. They’ll really appreciate it. Eventually, you can step in with a solution: your product, but not at the start. You aren’t pitching anything; you’re solving their problem.

Talking with previous customers about why they bought your product will help you understand what makes your product useful. Using this information, pinpointing new clients becomes far easier.

Reaching out to your clients routinely has become more important than ever in the time of social distancing. By staying in contact and asking the right questions, you’ll keep your relationships alive and foster future sales.

Marketing expert Elizabeth Harr recommends pinpointing your best, most valuable clients, and focusing your efforts. Show interest in their business and express your willingness to help them. Make sure you’re not always selling your product and that you reach out on a regular basis.

Keep track of all your client relationships by using UpHabit for Salesforce. The Salesforce AppExchange partner app, now in private beta, gives you everything you need to maintain consistent contact with clients. To make sure you don’t lose touch, the Reminder feature comes in handy. With reminders set with different intervals for every contact, you can maintain a strong relationship after each sale.

With smart technology, you can seamlessly integrate your UpHabit contacts into Salesforce, and enjoy the effortless contact management UpHabit has to offer, such as suggestions to add dozens of contacts to Salesforce with a single tap. It can’t get any easier than that.

Trust is the cornerstone of any sales transaction; customers have to trust you, your company, and your product. Knowing this, where should you start and how can you build trust with your clients and increase sales?

Samantha Harrington, a writer and journalist, highlights two key ways to build trust with new and existing clients. The first and easiest way is to connect with your clients via mutual connections. We are far more likely to try a product or service our trusted friend or acquaintance recommends and has done business with. You can use UpHabit Introductions, available late August 2020, to introduce your prospects to your reference accounts too.

For those lacking connections, showing that you are an expert in your business is another great way to establish trust. Guiding your client reliably to a viable solution and away from costly mistakes will demonstrate your expertise and that you have their best interests in mind.

Building trust and having conversations are great ways to develop your relationships, as mentioned before. But going beyond that by creating a personal connection is priceless for forging long-term connections.

Marketing strategist Alp Mimaroglu highlights Paul Teshima’s personalization hierarchy: shared interests, current employment, and work history. Connecting with your client on these three levels will add a personal touch to your professional relationships. By having strong personal relationships with your clients, they’ll be more likely to work with you again and even recommend you to their peers.

With integrated contacts from UpHabit for Salesforce, plus their easy LinkedIn and other social integrations, it’s easy and efficient to manage all your contacts. You can reap all the benefits of a contact management app while seamless integration will save time wasted on manual contact input. And the best part: it can all be done on-the-go via mobile. Less time spent on contact management means more time spent on building lasting relationships.

Finding new clients is central to business growth, but maintaining a loyal client base is the key to a sustainable business. Happy and satisfied customers are paramount to the success of your business, even more so during the COVID-19 crisis.

Andy Bailey, an author and business coach, recommends reaching out to clients to let them know you are here to help. If any issues arise, they should come before any other concerns. Most importantly, never sell additional products or services when dealing with these issues.

By addressing issues swiftly and effectively, you are building the clients trust and confidence in you. Establishing strong client relationships from the beginning and maintaining the best service can turn them into long term clients. Use UpHabit’s reminders to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Throughout your relationship with a client, you should be learning about them and understanding what they need and want. Our own Founder Neil Wainwright recommends using this knowledge to do things that help them succeed.

This doesn’t have to be limited to selling your product to solve their problems. Instead, introducing them to people in your network can open up plenty of opportunities for them and shows that you’re putting their needs above yours.

To connect your client and a member of your network quickly and professionally, use the upcoming UpHabit Introductions feature. With custom introduction templates and connection feedback, bringing your network closer together is going to be easy and efficient.

Now, more than ever before, building relationships with clients has become a central part of sales. With COVID-19 having massive effects on our professional and personal lives, retaining clients has become key for continued success. Using these 6 tips, you can create a strong network of client relationships and increase sales in the process.

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