I Want To Be More Than Friends

A big part of being a successful salesperson is about being a great friend. After all, we want our customers to enjoy being with us and feel good when they think of their relationship with us. That’s why it’s great to have shared experiences and have fun.  

However, that’s just the beginning of being a winning salesperson. You must be a friend AND a valued professional with valued solutions. Otherwise as “just a friend” you will be the first one invited to the party, but unfortunately not the one they go to with their business. 

How do we become more than friends?

We need to brand ourselves and our solutions to current and future customers.  An integral part of this process involves non-selling touches.  Non-selling touches are when you reach out to partners with no intention for them to purchase anything or to set up a meeting where you will be selling something.  You are just sharing information you believe they would like to know and/or reinforcing something you have mentioned or you know they believe.  Some best practices when making non-selling touches: 

• Don’t send 20 things you want them to know.  What do you want their one takeaway to be?  Make sure you make that the highlight.  As an example, if it’s an article, you can pull the key quote out and send it in the body of the email with the link.   Dilution Effect | LinkedIn
• What’s the benefit for THEM receiving this information. Mention it. 
• Christopher Young , Good Karma Brands VP of Digital, loves the quote, “Repetition is reputation”.  It takes frequency to build value in your solutions and in you. 

If you can be a great friend while bringing valued solutions, you will be a successful salesperson.

“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.” – John D. Rockefeller