How to Create Sales Relationships
A sales relationship primarily involves solving certain problems for
your clients in exchange for them paying your fees. And your primary
function in sales relationships is to solve client problems.
In this article, I will focus on this function as a direct and
effective method to initiate new sales relationships. Many commonly
used marketing and advertising methods fail to generate sales
relationships because they ignore or do not focus sufficiently on
solving client problems.
For example, advertising your service, experience and expertise does
not typically solve a client problem. This is a major reason why
many advertisements fail to generate much response. Listing how you
intend to solve client problems in an ad may be more effective but
it still only promises to resolve their concerns, but does not
actually do it.
The closer your "sales relationship action" comes to actually
solving a given client problem the more it will motivate client
responses and sales.
I will spend the rest of the article listing ways that you can
appreciate and utilize this marketing strategy to create and
maintain client relationships. Here they are:
1. KNOW WHAT PROBLEMS YOU WANT TO SOLVE
First, you need to decide what problem(s) you want to solve for your
clients. This is important to give you clarity and focus. You do not
need to resolve many different types of client concerns. But you do
need to solve one or a few kinds of problems for them in a
proficient and consistent manner.
Please have pen and paper ready. Ask yourself this question: "What
problems do I really want to solve for my clients?" List a maximum
of four answers.
Review the list of answers you created and circle the answers that
are especially important for you to do. Remember you are going to
have to work hard to figure out and solve these problems,
time and again.
Make sure you circle only the ones that you are willing to work on
and solve no matter what it takes. This kind of hard work will be
necessary on your part, especially at the beginning, to initiate
sales relationships. Therefore, you must choose a type of work for
which you have a lot of energy.
2. BECOME YOUR OWN CLIENT
Now that you know what problems you want to solve, you need to do
it. However, your inner critic may have become alarmed by now
telling you things like, "You can't do it!", "It won't work!", "They
will reject you!" etc.
If that happens to you, your inner critic could block your marketing
efforts and chances of bringing in new clients. To deal with this
and get past your inner critic you need to answer his/her objections
and convince him/her that you can and should do this.
One of the best ways to achieve this is by making your inner critic
a regular client of yours. This means you need to go to work on
solving the same problems for your self that you are going to be
solving for other people.
For example, let's say that you have decided you will focus on
solving people's real estate problems by helping them find and buy
properties. In this case, you will need to solve your own real
estate problems and meet your related needs on a regular basis.
Therefore, if you own a condominium now but would like to buy a
large house, you would work regularly on achieving this goal. In the
process you may research the market, establish financing sources,
show yourself some suitable properties, make plans, etc. You should
keep working on this and make your self more and more satisfied
about your real estate concerns.
As you solve these problems for your self, your inner critic will
become less and less vocal and eventually stop criticizing your
marketing efforts. In addition, you will feel more and more
empowered, confident, and free to go out there and initiate sales
relationships.
3. KNOW WHO YOU WANT TO WORK WITH
Now you know what problems you want to solve both for your self and
for your clients. Next, I would like you to determine who you want
to serve and with whom you want to establish client relationships.
Please make a list of a maximum of four types of people, groups, or
organizations you really want to work with as your clients or
employers. While there may be many people you may be willing to work
with, we want to determine here the one or few client groups whose
problems you are especially interested in solving.
4. HELP SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS
Your next step is to provide specialized information on a regular
basis to help potential clients. You probably have this information
already and will develop a lot more in the process of helping your
self as described in section 2 above.
You need to determine the most efficient ways that you are willing
to provide this information or service to as many people as possible
on a regular basis. This help is to be provided free of charge to
your clients as a way to initiate your part of the client
relationship, which is helping solve a specific problem for them.
There are many ways you can do this. For example, as a relationship
coach, I write and submit relationship enhancement articles to
various sources online on a weekly basis. This provides information
to help people solve relationship problems. However, it also begins
a client relationship for people who are interested in employing my
services.
You can do the same by writing and submitting informative articles
on your topics. In addition, you may choose other ways to help solve
potential client problems. For example, you can offer free speaking
engagements, give teleclasses, write letters take on a small client
project free, etc. All these are effective and often inexpensive
ways to attract new clients. And most of these methods do not
encounter a lot of rejection since people usually accept information
that is useful and relevant for them.
5. OFFER YOUR PAID SERVICES
Along with your free services, you should inform people about what
you offer for pay. For examples if you submit an article on your
topic to an E-zine, you would include your contact information in
the signature file at the bottom of the article. This typically
includes, your name, title, specialty services, years of
experience, contact info, website, etc., stated briefly in 6 lines
or less.
If you were giving a free speech, you would give people your
business cards and brochures, etc. Next you would move on to
create or offer this service to another potential client.
As you apply this marketing strategy, giving desired clients,
information they need, you will begin to receive inquiries about
your paid services. I suggest you utilize the inquiry session time
giving your clients more relevant information and devote only a part
of it to arranging for the payment of your fees.
Using these methods you will gradually establish yourself as a
knowledgeable professional in your field, which will bring more and
more clients for your business.
Kaveh Nayeri is a Relationship Coach and Author with 18 years of
related experience. Kaveh guides love relationships away from pain
toward healing, love, and peace. Kaveh can be reached at 858-459-
8695 for phone coaching. Visit
http://www.loveyoursoul.com for a
complete listing of coaching services and teleclasses. Kaveh can
also be reached by email at KNayeri@...
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