Relationships Are The Heart Of The Sale

We spend a lot of time worrying, plotting and developing a sales strategy. Much energy is spent on determining price and discount procedures, who pays for shipping and what terms we should provide. We focus on describing the merits of our product or service and why the customer should buy it. We consider our advertising and marketing schemes, allocating huge amounts of money and time and effort to devising the best possible marketing plan we can imagine and pay for. Print, radio, trade, consumer advertising… we experiment with it all hoping to find the one avenue that does the job best.

Sometimes we hire brokers, sales reps, or dedicated sales employees. We go to and display at trade shows, we do direct mailings and telemarketing, send postcards and hand out fliers. We create expensive, seductive and powerful websites. We create expensive brochures and design powerful presentations. We service to death our top accounts which we know represent 80% of our revenue. We spend a lot of time waiting for the big order to come in over the fax machine.

All these exercises and efforts are appropriate and result in some degree of success, but these are are all tools of the trade, not the heart of the matter when it comes to making the sale. Understanding the sale is what is so critical before we pick the media or the venue or the tools we believe will do the job the best.

So what is the bottom line, the heart of the sale, the heart of the sales strategy? It’s a question infrequently asked and seldom answered correctly. Is it price? Is it value? Is it specifications, terms, options, quality or a customized look? These are all important but they are not at the real heart of the sale.

In short, the real heartbeat of selling is the creation of a relationship between the business and the potential customer. Once that is made, the sale follows. It’s really that simple–or difficult, as it is not always easy to create relationships. However, this should be the goal and the objective. Create the relationship and the sale will follow. People prefer to do business with those they know and trust. This is the heart of the buying decision. Do they believe the sales message? While all the varied media decisions and choice of communication tools are also important decisions, how you use them and what you say with them is far more important, thus, more time must be spent in creating the message that helps support the relationship rather than just selling the product. Of course, some product or service information is also important, but who you are and why should we should do business with you and not your competition is equally important. This is creating a relationship.

What differentiates you is a key question, not the choice of colors available or delivery times. Create a dynamic relationship and the sales follow, automatically. That should be the focus. So, check your yellow page ad, your print ads, your website and your direct mailing pieces and ask if they support and create relationship or if they are merely trying to sell your goods or services? It is a very important distinction and a vitally important question. It is the difference between a very successful campaign and competing for your share of the market.

Remember, everything, everything, everything you do and present to the potential customer is part of your sales presentation. Make it good. Create the relationship and you will win far more than your fair share of the market.