While the end is not always visible on the relationship road, it is the most productive way to growing your business.
The transactional road provides a direct route to the outcome, but the journey is more difficult than your realize.
Believe it or not, you cannot effectively do both. Either you are trying to figure out how transactionally boost your sales — chasing revenue; or, you are systematically establishing credibility and becoming a trusted resource — building relationships.
Far too many business leaders and poorly trained or old-school sales professionals fail to understand the real obstacles of transactionally related sales behaviors. I offer the pictoral images to illustrate the benefits and challenges of the transactional approach vs. the relationship approach. Why most people avoid the relationship approach is that they really do not know how to effectively and productively navigate this road. However, once you know how to navigate this road, there is no more effective and beneficial way to get there.
Old school salespeople love the adventure of the transactional approach. They love to get there and overcome all the challenges along the way. Unfortunately, few of their customers enjoy or engage in this approach these days. It may be immediately gratifying, it is neither sustainable or productive over the long haul.
The solution is to provide your sales team with an effective education — not a training program — on manuevering effectively along the relationship road. There results will be more predictable, repeatable, and valuable to the organization that the reckless transactional ones.
Dave,
Having experienced both roads and being form the old school, I can see both and agree that the smoother road is to build those relationships. When I look back, building the relationships always paid greater dividends with continued sales and more customers by referral from the advocates that my relationships built. It also made life much more interesting.
Thanks Dave, and keep up the good work, I appreciate your endeavors.
Tom Mosher
When I discuss this subject with other people in sales, it often becomes a discussion about long term vs short term focus. In my opinion, however, I see no reason why the relationship road can’t lead to short-term results. It’s not because you’re building relations and go for the consultative approach that you should put off closing the deal. Would love to hear your opinion on this, Dave!
Wim