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Relationship Selling: What Is It and Does It Work?

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sammy kelvin
Relationship Selling: What Is It and Does It Work?

Sales professionals have heard a lot of buzzwords recently, none so popular as "relationship selling." The new conventional wisdom is that it has replaced traditional sales techniques. But there seems to be some confusion about what, exactly, it means.

Is relationship selling a process? Does it refer to customers or to everyone in the sales stack? Does it apply to teams or just to individual sales people? Is it transactional?

The answer, it turns out, is more subtle and complex.

Here's how one business site defines it, and this is as succinct a definition as we've seen:

"Relationship selling refers to the sales technique that focuses on the interaction between the buyer and the sales person, 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 sales person.

"This sales technique is prominent for companies selling products and services that rely on repeat business from customers, such as insurance policies, or private instructors, such as dance or music. These individuals are forced to compete on the level of quality and price; however, it they make good relationships, their customers will continue to buy from them as a result, sometimes regardless of price.

"In the traditional sales approach, the goal is to make the sale, and that is the end point of the buyer/seller relationship. Marketers realized that the sale is not the end point and, in many situations, is not the end goal either. In actuality, the sale is the beginning of what many companies are looking for: a long-term relationship."

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