I think we would all agree that most senior salespeople understand this.

In fact most have built their careers around it. Recruiters and hiring managers also look for this attribute in any strategic new hire.

What separates an average, or slightly above average, sales professional from a top producer though?

In this brief post, you will learn a few quick tips on how to leverage relationship selling to:

• More Effectively Manage The Sales Cycle
• Expand Your Sphere Of Career Opportunities

Great salespeople have strong relationships, personal and professional, throughout their client’s organization. Relationship selling, for top producers, implies relationships with every individual person or group that has influence on the buying decision.

So what exactly is Relationship Selling? B2B networking platform LinkedIn sums it up succinctly:

“Relationship selling refers to the sales technique that focuses on the interaction between the buyer and the salesperson, rather than the price or details of the product. Arguably, all three remain critical for any sales activity, but the status of the relationship can increase consumer loyalty as a result of familiarity and personality of the salesperson.”

Have you ever lost in a competitive sales campaign and then asked yourself: “What the heck just happened, I thought I was in the lead?”

Well, you’re not alone. Your competitor probably had stronger, deeper relationships at different levels of the organization than you did.

Having a relationship with the CXO who is making the final decision is a given. But what about department heads that report into that decision-maker? What about the ultimate users of the product or service?

Remember, the CXO decision-maker has to keep the entire workplace happy. The final buying decision may be heavily influenced downstream of where you’ve been spending all of your time.

Make sure that you have relationships at all levels of the organization that have an impact on the buying decision.

So what’s the bottom line?

Know your client! The more relationships you have inside of your accounts, at all levels, the more sales intelligence you’ll be capable of gathering and leveraging in your sales campaigns.

Demonstrable relationship selling skills will also help you with career enhancement or change opportunities. Recruiters, hiring managers and employers alike are looking for sales professionals just like you.

Are you considering, or actively seeking new sales opportunities? We are a professional recruiting and staffing agency that is laser-beam focused on placing sales professionals.

We have helped thousands of sales professionals find the perfect sales opportunity. So why not you? Give us a call, we’ll make sure that you’ll be glad you did!