Paige Lovvorn
Distributor Sales
You may have heard the saying “People buy from people they like.” It’s true, it’s so much easier to sell when you have a positive sales relationship with your clients. This benefits are two-fold as well – the relationships you create make selling easier and more natural, but can also increase your sales by increasing your referrals.
How do you build sales relationships?
Start with a targeted list of prospects. Take the time to qualify them as good prospects for your company. Hone in on key demographics that best suit your service offerings. Target the radius you want to service, the age of the homes in the area and income of the household to name a few. Knowing your target will help you identify your client’s needs and ensure you’re the best fit for taking care of those needs as well.
Building a relationship with anyone requires information. Ask questions – try to learn as much about the existing clients with whom you want to continue to grow a relationship. Send birthday cards to both clients and prospects. Invite them to functions that they’ll be interested in. Send articles that are of specific interest to them. Are you wondering how to get the information? Just ask! It will give you another reason to contact your prospects and will help you stay in front of them. ShuBee has a line of marketing items designed with the sole purpose of helping you stay in front of your client; thank you cards, direct mail postcards, valve tags and wall calendars just to name just a few.
By paying just a little more attention to the details and making a more concerted effort to stay in touch with your clients, you will differentiate yourself from others by the quality of your relationships with clients.
By staying in front of clients throughout their buying cycle (and not just the close of the sale), the next time they have a friend who asks for a referral on a repair or install, your company name will be the first that comes to mind.
Having a client refer your company to friends and family means you are doing a great job! You can increase your referrals by doing something as simple as adding a $25.00 referral fee on the back side of your two-sided business cards. Talk to your Service Consultant to learn just how simple and effective this is.
Another idea for the upcoming holiday season is to offer a $25.00 off coupon for donations to your local food bank or Toys for Tots. This helps your community at the same time growing your business!
Don’t run from dissatisfied clients. If you think a client isn’t happy with you or your services, be up front about it and discuss the issue with them quickly to try to find a solution. It could be a simple misunderstanding on the scope of a project or a concern about the timeframe the work was performed. Whatever the issue is, it’s an opportunity to convert an unhappy client into a raving fan. You can take a dissatisfied client and take care of the problem and turn them in to fans for life because they will know you really care about them and value their relationship.
Recognize that the client relationship is part of the job! Thinking about and working on the relationship will make you more successful, enhance your chance for future work, and make the job much more enjoyable.