Customer Relationship—the 8th “C” of the SELLability 8 Cs. For many companies, it is the missing element keeping them from being a super-success; lack of it is holding them down to only being a fair success, or worse.
The Customer Relationship comes after the close. It is the successful transferring of the sale from you, as the sales rep, to the delivery team, who will now keep the customer as happy as you kept them throughout the sales process.
When this is not done, the customer will come back to you with any questions or issues they have with the product or service. As a rep, you are not usually equipped to service the client in this way, and additionally, your attention will be constantly pulled from pursuing new deals to handle any customer service shortcomings.
After the close, and as the Customer Relationship phase begins, both you and the customer should be happy. Both of you should have won.
The perfect definition of a sale is an exchange where both parties win.
The Wrong Way
But all too often in today’s sales landscape, this definition does not apply. For example, the sales rep manages to “push” the prospect into buying something that they do not really want. The rep wins a commission, and the prospect loses to the degree that they have purchased something that will not really help them.
There can even be the extreme that we’ve all heard about, and some have unfortunately experienced, in which the prospect is sold something totally useless, like the used car that gives out two blocks from the lot where it was sold.
It does not have to be this drastic to remain unbalanced. For example, once the close has happened, the customer cannot reach anyone that will really help them implement the product or service or solve issues about it. The sales rep and their company got paid, and the customer got the product—but the customer is missing the vital service that will really make them happy.
It is these types of scenarios that create the bad reputation salespeople often suffer from, and the sales resistance that they so often encounter.
It can happen the other way, too. A salesperson can be so desperate for a sale that they will do anything to get the prospect to buy, such as offer a ridiculously low price that contains no profit for the company. Here the customer won, and the salesperson lost. Unfortunately, the salesperson’s company lost, too, and it may mean that the salesperson loses their job.
The Right Way
How does this win-win actually come about? It happens when the salesperson is able to discover, using good communication skills, the prospect’s goals, dreams, interests, and problems they are looking to solve, by way of what it is they are looking to buy. It is easier guiding someone through the sales process when you are totally certain that your product or service is the correct fit for the prospect.
Doing this right means guiding the prospect to the point where they realize—as you realize, too—that your product or service is a perfect match for them. By both of you realizing that, you end up with that perfect definition for a sale: an exchange in which both parties win.
There is much more to learn about creating a win-win sale.
