.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} I MADE THE SALE! Great. Way to go! OK, now calm down. What kind of sale? Any chance for an up-sell? A referral? Another sale?

The sale is just one small part of the relationship. It’s not the beginning of it, and hopefully it’s not the end. It’s somewhere between establishing rapport, building value, lowering barriers, eliminating risk, developing trust, winning the business, delivering what you promised, training, serving in a memorable way and getting the next order.

The power of sales is not selling or making the sale. The power of sales is building trust, value and relationship to earn referrals, testimonials and the next sale. The power of sales and selling is building reputation and market dominance, whether local or global.

Salespeople and sales managers put 90 percent of their emphasis on product knowledge and making the sale. “Here’s what our product does, and here’s how to sell it.”

What about the relationship? That’s where the real sale is. That’s where the real value is. That’s where the real profit is.

Managers should be teaching 90 percent relationships, 5 percent product and 5 percent selling skills. If you’re looking to build a successful business, it doesn’t start with sales and evolve to “satisfied” customers. It starts with relationships and builds to loyalty.

Here are the elements that will HELP you move toward good relationships.

• The value of friendly. How friendly are you?

• The value of enthusiasm. How enthusiastic are you?

• The power of belief. How deep is your belief in your company, your products and service, and yourself?

• The power of a first impression. How excellent is your first impression?

• The ability to engage. Dialogue, not monologue. How much does your customer talk in your presentation? How compelling are your questions?

• Tell me what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T do. Create a (sincere) positive atmosphere.

• Tell me how I profit and how I win. Customers want to know what’s in it for them.

• Uncover the customers’ real buying process. If you know how they buy, it might help you get to the real decision maker.

• Uncover their motives and reasons for buying. Why they buy is a million times more powerful than how to sell.

• What’s your “toaster” offer? What’s my incentive (beyond price) to buy from you?

• Reducing risk. If the risk is too high, I will stall, object or lie to get rid of you.

• View your customers from the other side. What does ownership of your product or using your service look like to them?

• Get to know your customers. How do they use your product? How do they profit? What are their obstacles to success? What are their goals? How can you help them achieve?

• Building loyal relationships means taking loyal actions. How do you respond to their service needs?

• How easy is it to do business with you? When I call your office, are you asking me to select from among eight options? Or is your phone answered 24/7 by a live answering service?

• What are you doing to build value? How are you helping your customer beyond your product?

• Do your customers consider you a vendor or a resource? Are they calling you and asking for vital information and answers?

• What are you doing to stay in front of your customers? Do you have a value-based e-mail magazine?

• Are you treating all customers the same – like gold? Why not?

• Are you creating best practices to build your business? Why not?

If you want a few questions you can ask to get a relationship dialogue going, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time user, and enter RELATE in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer