Relationships. Isn't that what makes the world go ‘round? In business and in life people tend to drift toward, associate with, and buy from people they know, like, and trust. George H. Ross, Donald Trump’s sterling adviser says and I quote, “To be successful, you have to be able to relate to people; they have to be satisfied with your personality to be able to do business with you and to build a relationship with mutual trust.” A profound business wisdom, yes, but what is there to it in the value of building business relationships with your customers and clients? In my over twenty-five years in sales and marketing industry, I have been acquainted with many accomplished sales professionals who credit their success to “relationship selling.” It is the process of knowing, understanding and helping your customers to their specific needs. Plain and Simple. No rocket science required. There is never any secret formula because selling in all its entirety is relationship selling. But building relationships is not necessarily what selling is all about. Remarkable business leaders create decisions based on what they think is best for their customers, their company employees, shareholders, and for themselves. That I should say is as definitive as it can be.
A good relationship most often is not what actually initiates a business transaction. It rather is what facilitates and makes possible cooperation, collaboration, and commerce. A good relationship can make a prospective client be much more willing to share their business goals and projections with you, together explore possibilities, commune and mutually discover and develop new ideas. A customer may even take a step forward with you towards a project and but not with another business colleague or even another vendor. Having a high degree of trust on you by your customer can make you their supplier of choice even if you cost a bit more and at that juncture, the quintessence of it all is when you and your business become a strategic partner of your customers.
