{"id":12040,"date":"2015-04-21T09:50:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T13:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=12040"},"modified":"2015-04-21T09:54:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T13:54:46","slug":"the-30-minute-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/sales-and-marketing\/2015\/04\/the-30-minute-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"The 30-Minute Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clocka\"Recently, while perusing discussions on my LinkedIn groups, I saw a statement that can only be described as a doozy:\u00a0 another sales trainer posted, \u201cI can teach you to build a relationship, based on trust, that will last a lifetime, and accomplish that within a 30 minute sales call.\u201d\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 That\u2019s quite a statement.\u00a0And let me make a statement, as well:\u00a0 I cannot teach you how, within a 30 minute sales call, to build a lifetime relationship based on trust.<\/p>\n

Of course, I suspect that the author of the statement can\u2019t do so either.\u00a0In fact, I\u2019m sure he can\u2019t; earning a lifetime\u2019s worth of trust cannot be done within 30 minutes. People simply don\u2019t work that way. However, if your sights and your goals are set correctly, you can accomplish some important things in a 30 minute sales call.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about what they are.<\/p>\n

Establish Dialogue:<\/strong>\u00a0 The first task on any sales interaction is to generate a comfortable dialogue for both parties.\u00a0 Any sales interaction begins with fear on both parties\u2019 sides.\u00a0 Your customer has a fear of making a bad deal, or at a minimum, wasting time.\u00a0 You have a fear of not selling and not succeeding.\u00a0 Within the first 30 minutes, you can put at least some of those fears to the side.\u00a0 The fear creates a wall between the two of you; if that wall isn\u2019t lower by the time you leave than it was when you started, you\u2019ve missed something somewhere.<\/p>\n

Become Memorable:<\/strong>\u00a0 One of the most difficult aspects of selling is being remembered when you\u2019re not in front of the buyer.\u00a0 We all like to think that we are incredibly distinctive and memorable people, and that not only will our customers remember us, they love us after meeting us.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t so.\u00a0 Years ago, I did an exercise with a company I was working for.\u00a0 In this exercise, we surveyed customers that had been seen the prior week by salespeople.\u00a0 We simply asked them if they recalled being seen by a salesperson from our company, who the person was, and what stood out about the conversation. (I should point out that my sales force was the top branch in the country for this company.)<\/p>\n

The results were sobering.\u00a0 60% remembered being seen by one of our people.\u00a0 Less than 50% could recall a name.\u00a0 Only about 25% could remember any of the conversation.\u00a0 However, <\/strong>invariably, when someone did recall the conversation, their recollection was that the salesperson \u201casked a lot of tough questions.\u201d\u00a0 This is what makes you memorable to your customers \u2013 asking questions that get inside their heads.<\/p>\n

Deposit into your Emotional Bank Account:<\/strong>\u00a0 The Emotional Bank Account is at the center of all of your relationships.\u00a0 Essentially, the EBA is a measurement of how much \u201cequity\u201d you have earned with the other person.\u00a0 We are constantly making deposits and withdrawals in our EBA\u2019s; the key is to maintain a positive balance by making more deposits than withdrawals.\u00a0 We make deposits by making positive gestures toward the other person.\u00a0 We make withdrawals by asking things of the other person that might be unpleasant, tough, or uncomfortable for them.\u00a0 In the first 30 minutes, it\u2019s critical to begin making deposits into the EBA; if your balance is zero or negative at the end of the first 30 minutes, your customer is likely to close your account.<\/p>\n

Gain Understanding of your Buyer:<\/strong>\u00a0 One of your first tasks as a salesperson is to begin to understand your buyer \u2013 and by that, I mean understanding his\/her perspective and worldview as it pertains to business dealings.\u00a0 You do that by asking good questions about your buyer\u2019s background, the things they enjoy about their work, and good big-picture questions about the company itself.<\/p>\n

Align Yourself With Your Buyer:\u00a0 <\/strong>As important as understanding your buyer is aligning yourself with your buyer.\u00a0 When the sales call starts, one of the buyer\u2019s assumptions is that you and he are on opposite sides of the table, and not necessarily working in the same direction to a common goal.\u00a0 You\u2019re a salesperson, and the perception of a salesperson is that of someone who is trying to \u201cpush\u201d a product or service off on the buyer without significant regard for the buyer\u2019s well-being and interests.\u00a0 You can communicate, through word and deed, that you are on the buyer\u2019s side and that you are working in the same direction.<\/p>\n

(Maybe) Generate an Opportunity:<\/strong>\u00a0 This one depends greatly upon your offerings and sales environment \u2013 but, yes, it is possible to generate an opportunity for a proposal or even an initial order on a 30-minute sales call.\u00a0 What\u2019s important is to keep this in perspective; even if you have generated actual business in 30 minutes, it does not mean that you have generated that \u201clifetime\u201d relationship.\u00a0 It means that you have generated enough trust with your buyer to give you a tryout; what you do from there will determine if you ever have that opportunity to build a lifelong relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, while perusing discussions on my LinkedIn groups, I saw a statement that can only be described as a doozy:\u00a0 another sales trainer posted, \u201cI can teach you to build a relationship, based on trust, that will last a lifetime, and accomplish that within a 30 minute sales call.\u201d\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 That\u2019s quite a statement.\u00a0And let me make a statement, as well:\u00a0 I cannot teach you how, within a 30 minute sales call, to build a lifetime relationship based on trust. Of course, I suspect that the author of the statement can\u2019t do so either.\u00a0In fact, I\u2019m sure he can\u2019t; earning a lifetime\u2019s worth of trust cannot be done within 30 minutes. People simply don\u2019t work that way. However, if your sights and your goals are set correctly, you can accomplish some important things in a 30 minute sales call.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about what they are. Establish Dialogue:\u00a0 The first task on any sales interaction is to generate a comfortable dialogue for both parties.\u00a0 Any sales interaction begins with fear on both parties\u2019 sides.\u00a0 Your customer has a fear of making a bad deal, or at a minimum, wasting time.\u00a0 You have a fear of not selling and not succeeding.\u00a0 Within the first 30 minutes, you can put at least some of those fears to the side.\u00a0 The fear creates a wall between the two of you; if that wall isn\u2019t lower by the time you leave than it was when you started, you\u2019ve missed something somewhere. Become Memorable:\u00a0 One of the most difficult aspects of selling is being remembered when you\u2019re not in front of the buyer.\u00a0 We all like to think that we are incredibly distinctive and memorable people, and that not only will our customers remember us, they love us after meeting us.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t so.\u00a0 Years ago, I did an exercise with a company I was working for.\u00a0 In this exercise, we surveyed customers that had been seen the prior week by salespeople.\u00a0 We simply asked them if they recalled being seen by a salesperson from our company, who the person was, and what stood out about the conversation. (I should point out that my sales force was the top branch in the country for this company.) The results were sobering.\u00a0 60% remembered being seen by one of our people.\u00a0 Less than 50% could recall a name.\u00a0 Only about 25% could remember any of the conversation.\u00a0 However, invariably, when someone did recall the conversation, their recollection was that the salesperson \u201casked a lot of tough questions.\u201d\u00a0 This is what makes you memorable to your customers \u2013 asking questions that get inside their heads. Deposit into your Emotional Bank Account:\u00a0 The Emotional Bank Account is at the center of all of your relationships.\u00a0 Essentially, the EBA is a measurement of how much \u201cequity\u201d you have earned with the other person.\u00a0 We are constantly making deposits and withdrawals in our EBA\u2019s; the key is to maintain a positive balance by making more deposits than withdrawals.\u00a0 We make deposits by making positive gestures toward the other person.\u00a0 We make withdrawals by asking things of the other person that might be unpleasant, tough, or uncomfortable for them.\u00a0 In the first 30 minutes, it\u2019s critical to begin making deposits into the EBA; if your balance is zero or negative at the end of the first 30 minutes, your customer is likely to close your account. Gain Understanding of your Buyer:\u00a0 One of your first tasks as a salesperson is to begin to understand your buyer \u2013 and by that, I mean understanding his\/her perspective and worldview as it pertains to business dealings.\u00a0 You do that by asking good questions about your buyer\u2019s background, the things they enjoy about their work, and good big-picture questions about the company itself. Align Yourself With Your Buyer:\u00a0 As important as understanding your buyer is aligning yourself with your buyer.\u00a0 When the sales call starts, one of the buyer\u2019s assumptions is that you and he are on opposite sides of the table, and not necessarily working in the same direction to a common goal.\u00a0 You\u2019re a salesperson, and the perception of a salesperson is that of someone who is trying to \u201cpush\u201d a product or service off on the buyer without significant regard for the buyer\u2019s well-being and interests.\u00a0 You can communicate, through word and deed, that you are on the buyer\u2019s side and that you are working in the same direction. (Maybe) Generate an Opportunity:\u00a0 This one depends greatly upon your offerings and sales environment \u2013 but, yes, it is possible to generate an opportunity for a proposal or even an initial order on a 30-minute sales call.\u00a0 What\u2019s important is to keep this in perspective; even if you have generated actual business in 30 minutes, it does not mean that you have generated that \u201clifetime\u201d relationship.\u00a0 It means that you have generated enough trust with your buyer to give you a tryout; what you do from there will determine if you ever have that opportunity to build a lifelong relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1866],"tags":[2192,2141],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12040"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12046,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12040\/revisions\/12046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}