Jul
18

By CommenceCRM

Sales Best Practice #13 – Inside Relationships

Relationships with inside people, a best sales practice by Dave Kahle.

By Dave Kahle

Best Practice #13:  Has an excellent relationship with customer service, purchasing and all the support staff inside his/her organization.

This is such an important practice that I have named it one of my top eleven time management strategies. If you have the book, Eleven Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople, you’ll see that it is secret number nine.

I had to learn this the hard way. I was a heavy-hitting, driven sales person. I’d stop into the office, drop off work for everyone, and head back out to my territory. I just assumed that everyone would do the jobs that I had deposited on them. My task-oriented style put a number of people off, and my operations manager warned me that I was creating ill-will among the office staff.

It took a while, but I finally decided that I needed them to be on my side. So, I apologized, bought everyone a gift, and tried to re-start the relationship on a more positive basis. As people gradually came over to my side, I found that I was able to be far more productive.

Instead of doing a project myself, I could confidently ask someone inside to do it for me. Since they liked me, they didn’t mind. Instead of expediting a back order myself, I could have someone else do it. Instead of walking a new and complex order through the system, I could have someone else do it.

I discovered that many of the tasks that I previously had done myself could be done just as effectively and much more efficiently by someone else. That freed up my time to do what I did best – visit my customers and sell my company’s products. As a result, I was much more effective.

That’s why this is one of the best practices of the best sales people. The average sales person creates an overwhelming list of tasks to perform and things to do which then weigh him/her down and decrease the amount of time spent with customers. The exceptional sales person creates relationships, not tasks, and influences those people to do the tasks for him. In so doing, he/she multiplies his effectiveness and dramatically increases the amount of time spent with customers.

It’s a best practice of the best sales people.

To learn more about how to do this, read chapter nine of Eleven Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople.

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About the author:

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales authorities. He’s written twelve books, presented in 47 states and ten countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations. Sign up for his free weekly Ezine.

Check out our Sales Resource Center® for 455 audio and sales training programs for every sales person at every level. You may contact Dave at Kahle Way® Sales Systems, 800-331-1287, or dave@davekahle.com.

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