Episode 163 - Are Relationships Important in Sales?

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have. In this episode, we are going to be talking about relationships and whether they are important in sales and business development.   Although it may seem like an arbitrary question, it is very important to ask that question.    You would think that it's like "duh! are relationships important in a sales conversation?" And the immediate thought might be yes, but there's a growing number of educators in the business development space that are talking about that relationships aren't important.   They tell you that you can be off-hand, or even bordering on rude in a sales conversation, and it's quite bizarre. Why do they say that?   Well, the reason that they do it is that they are contending in a battle for eyeballs. People have this habit of trying to slay sacred cows in order to get attention so, people will say that traditionally, popular concepts are incorrect to simply get attention.    They might have a good message, a lot of them have good intentions, and a lot of them have good programs so, are relationships important in sales, or is it a misconception that we've learned over the years?   The first situation that I want to dive in to answer that question is that when salespeople are talking to a client, there is a tendency, especially people who are new in sales, to be really eager to please and to subordinate their own importance in the actual sales conversation.    You certainly need to be assertive, but you also need to be willing to challenge assumptions that are incorrect. For that, you'll need to stand your ground but you'll also need to be respectful when you challenge those assumptions.    What would you say, are relationships important in sales?   Even though you shouldn't ever suck up to a potential client or try and people please, the strength of relationships has never been more important, especially in this world where there are certain industries that aren't going so well, and loyalty can mean the difference between you having a good relationship and not having a good relationship.   So, listen to this episode because this is a very discussed topic and I know that the scenarios that I'll be sharing with you will help you understand what is the real role of relationships in sales.  To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.