Relationship Selling Article - Relationship Selling Eliminates Cold Calling

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Relationship Selling Is the Easiest Path to Increase Market Share

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Part II - Relationship Selling Eliminates Cold Calling

The biggest handicap to increasing market share is the inordinate amount of time that sales people spend cold calling trying to get into new accounts. This is tough duty. It’s tough because there are no relationships to leverage for information and upward introductions. Precious time is wasted calling or pounding doors to leave advertisements to generate interest. Sales people cost too much to do that. They should not be used as an advertising arm of marketing.

Answering RFP’s is another time sink and waste of valuable selling time unless you have relationships with people that count for that project. If you haven’t been involved in the development of the RFP and you haven’t gotten to the P/L leader to understand the business issues, you don’t know how to present your solution so that you stand out as more valuable than the rest. Even if you submit the lowest price, you may not win-over the ultimate decision-maker because price is usually not his issue – even though everyone always says it is.

I’m in sales. I sell my consulting, my books and my training programs. My focus is on my existing customers. 90% of my time is with existing customers, spent trying to develop selling relationships - meaning - learning, observing, interviewing, integrating and show how I can deliver their results. I use and develop my network. As for new accounts, I’ve hired a marketing company to generate qualified leads. Once they’ve got a prospect to a point where I can interview an interested leader, I’ll invest to see if I can fit into his solution image. I don’t chase windmills. Unless I have an opportunity to develop a relationship - credibility with someone on the inside, I will let it pass. I invest my valued asset - time to develop my valued asset - relationships. Relationship selling is how I can make the most sales.

For more see Part III - Relationship Selling Overcomes the Lowest Price Syndrome