mind your business: Gaining Market Share in a Difficult Economy:
In the B2B world, the relationship between the customer and the vendor—and more specifically—the vendor's salesperson, can be of utmost importance.
It doesn't take long in the business to understand that if customers dislike you, they are rarely going to meet with you. And if they do know you and trust you, they are more likely to do business with you.
Creating positive business relationships with all of your customers and prospects is, then, a fundamental step in the path toward success for any B2B salesperson.
Having said that, the existence of positive business relationships is one of the primary hindrances to success for the typical field salesperson. That may seem like a contradiction, but let's dissect how this works.
The typical field salesperson, when presented with a sales territory, naturally attempts to see as many people as possible, and sets about building relationships with some of them. Since he or she typically has more accounts than can effectively be handled, he or she tends to spend time with those with whom there is some affinity.
Over a few years, these relationships become solidified, and the salesperson is content to work with that set of people with whom he or she gets along. Given the choice of making a cold call on a prospect and visiting an existing relationship, the natural inclination is to go where it is easiest. Relationships coalesce, and the salesperson develops routines based on them.
For years, this mode of operation was acceptable. In a growing economy, most of the customers grew as well, and all the salesperson had to do was show up and he or she would expect a certain percentage of the business. Life was good, and the job was easy.
Now, however, most of the customers aren't growing, and most sales territories are down. Many of those same customers are struggling to stay profitable. The salesperson's market, defined as the people with whom he or she has positive business relationships, has shrunk. In many sales territories, if the sales territory is going to grow, or at least gain market share, the salesperson has to look outside his or her current relationships.
Unfortunately, many salespeople are hampered by their existing relationships. They have invested so much time in some customers who may not be worth it, that they cannot extricate themselves and devote the time and energy to creating new relationships and new customers. Changing established routines is an arduous task that requires, in most cases, both management intervention as well as willing salespeople.
The starting point is for sales management to create specific expectations, measurements, and rewards and consequences for the salespeople. It's no longer effective to announce, "We need more new customers, guys," and think that will get results. Changed behavior requires specific expectations, something like "one new customer per month, for the next 12 months."
Management should be meeting with every salesperson, every month, and measuring progress on the expectations. There should be rewards and consequences. For example, offering double commissions for the first six months of a new customer's purchases will light a fire under most salespeople, especially when coupled with a consequence like removing some current accounts from their territory.
Once the expectations are created, the measurements put into place, the consequences and rewards fixed and articulated, management needs to educate the salespeople in the best practices of creating new relationships. Some are unsure of how to make a cold call, and most have unrealistic expectations. That's where training and education come in—you can't expect people to do something if they have never been educated in how to do it.
In addition, you cannot realistically expect every relationship-oriented salesperson to change his or her routines and excel at the new expectations. For those who don't seem to be able to make the transition, you'll have to decide whether they are profitable with their base of customers and reduced sales volume, or whether it may be wiser to find someone new and more trainable. Don't let their relationships hinder your business.
By Dave Kahle
Dave Kahle is one of the world's leading sales educators. He's written nine books, presented in 47 states and eight countries, and has helped enrich tens-of-thousands of salespeople and transform hundreds of sales organizations. Sign up for his free weekly Ezine at www.davekahle.com, and for a limited time, receive $547 of free bonuses when you obtain a copy of his latest book, "How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime."
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