Relationship Selling

The Traditional Sales Model doesn't work anymore and is associated with "high pressure selling". The traditional sales model consists of spending about 10% of the sales person's time telling the potential buyer what the offer is, 20% of the time qualifying the buyer, 30% of the time presenting the features of the product or service and 40% of the time focusing on closing long and hard. As an example, when you purchase a car in a showroom, the sales person will typically start talking about the feature of the car the buyer is looking at, maybe establish some rapport with the potential buyer, sometimes steers them to a different model, points out all the feature of the car and then if they buyer is interested in purchasing the car the paperwork and negotiating begins. This is when the sales person goes to the finance manager to get guidance is striking a "deal" - sometimes this is a back and forth negotiation that takes a bit of time, of course getting approved for credit is part of this process.  All this is the "closing long and hard" stage of selling. Has this ever happened to you?  Personally, I am a fan of car brokers if you know a good one, I do.

Relationship Sales is very different.  Building Trust (and rapport)  is 40% of  this type of selling.  Remember the quote - "people like to do business with people they like and they trust" a very true statement. Asking probing questions and listening is 30% of this type of selling,  From the fact finding stage, making a presentation (selling the benefits of what services or products the sales person offers) is about 20%. This is based on what was said and what was heard.  Reassuring, overcoming objections and closing is 10% of the process.  Very different than the tradtional model as it's all about the buyer.

Which style would you prefer?  There are some reading this blog who have no problem with working with a traditional sales person and in fact might enjoy the bantering and bargaining that accompanies that style. But most people would rather feel comfortable that they are being heard and the sales person is listening to what they want or need. There is a bad reputation associated with sales around the traditional style and many people feel that most sales people are annoying.  If more sales people and the companies they work for apply relationship selling in their processes, this old reputatioin would be gone. Which do you prefer?