Attention Sales World... Are You Building Sustainable Relationships Or Building A Slew Of Transactions?
Larry Levine
In a world of empty suits, I’m leading a movement of authenticity, integrity, and trust inside the sales profession
"Approaching people looking for something in return isn't a relationship, it's a transaction."
Mark Manson
When you view sales with a transactional mindset, don’t expect to receive what you give, expect to receive what you get, a transactional relationship.
You can have a slew of transactions or a slew of meaningful client relationships, but you can't have both.
Building relationships is complex in and of itself. It's a balance of giving and receiving. In personal relationships, we give love. We commit. We sacrifice ourselves. We invest time. We bare our emotions. We strive. And we hope to receive the same in return.
What prevents all of you in sales from doing the same with your clients? We know how important your client relationships are to you, so what are you willing to do about it?
Are you creating transactional customers or transformational clients?
Take a moment, now deeply think about what was just said... now think about your interactions and how you're building these so-called relationships.
Are the conversations you're having and how you're carrying yourself transactional in nature? If so, I am here to inform you, you will be become replaceable.
Just keeping it real. This is a tough pill to swallow but transactional selling is 100% replaceable by another salesperson who comes along with a better transactional conversation.
You are a transactional seller when….
It is monumentally difficult to build relational strength with your clients with a transactional mindset. These so-called relationships are unfulfilling, lack any real strength and lack sustainability. They lack real strength because they?lack any kind of real depth.
Here lies the dilemma, as sales in general, has been deeply rooted in transactions, with many taking the Jerry Maguire approach of?“Show me the money!”
In other words, I give you the goods and you give me your money. Simply stated, nothing more, nothing less.
I believe salespeople and management who are focused solely on getting their?'customers'?money in exchange of goods are entering into treacherous territory.
Hear me out... This territory is 100% replaceable, not sustainable and commission breathe driven.
"Everybody is replaceable. But it’s not about being replaced it’s about how hard it is to replace you."
Niccolina?Andre Vignaroli
It's concerning, in today’s society and business climate, we tend to have shallow, superficial relationships; as we have lulled ourselves into thinking they are much more than they really are.
It’s extremely hard for this kind of relationship to provide anything more than faint satisfaction and short-term results.
TRANSACTIONAL TO TRANSFORMATIONAL
Transforming your client relationships... It's about truly serving them, going above and beyond their wildest expectations, constantly looking out for the best interests, all while providing them with the greatest results, and this would business betterment.
To further reinforce, I will refer to?Dan Sullivan?who is with?Strategic Coach. He goes on to say,?"Savvy entrepreneurs focus on?transformation."
Let's apply Dan's quote to the sales world and twist it up...
Astute sales professionals focus on client transformation.
I believe client transformation comes with peace of mind, a sense of accomplishment and more importantly, a sense of purpose.
Transactional sales mindsets struggle with the following...
Allow this quote to sink in for a moment, courtesy of?Janet S. Dickens
“The wings of transformation are born of patience and struggle.”?
With trust and credibility constantly being placed under a microscope, it's vitally important for all salespeople, sales managers and sales leaders to develop relational patience.
RELATIONAL TRANSFORMATION BEGINS WITH PATIENCE
Remember, the relationships you developed with your clients didn't happen overnight, and they will not change overnight. However, a minor shift in your mindset and actions will lead to huge changes over time.
Many of you are familiar with the famous saying "Patience is a virtue".
What does it mean to be virtuous? Or to be patient? And how can this be applied to sales?
According to?Strong’s Concordance, the word?"virtue"?in Greek means to be of moral excellence or goodness. Being virtuous is producing goodness from the?Fruits of the Spirit. Being patient is also a part of the?Fruits of the Spirit. So, how many times a day do we produce these fruits? How many times a day do you produce these fruits for your clients?
Let's focus in on a passage from Galatians 6:9:?-?“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
How can you do good for your clients, look after them and thus reap the rewards when many of you operate with a transactional,?"all about me"?mindset?
Patience... The one word in sales many struggle to comprehend.
You must develop patient and purposeful conversations to effectively build meaningful and transformational relationships.
Here lies the struggle for many of you as technological advances and all the tools that come with it, continually present you with numerous ways of doing unimaginable things faster and more efficiently.
Despite how efficient this may make you; it seems to have led to unrealistic expectations in client relationships.
Solid relationships are built between solid individuals. To bring the best version of ourselves to these relationships means sometimes we may need to work on ourselves first.
Patience builds character.
I believe conversations build relationships, relationships build businesses and therefore, you never know when one transformational conversation will lead to exponential revenue growth.
TRANSACTIONAL MINDSETS ARE FOCUSED ON THE SALE
How many of you are running around right now trying to find the next "deal"?
If so, and thank you for your honesty, I am going to ask you to think about how sustainable this is and all the mental punishment you're putting yourself through.
This mindset reduces your relationships to nothing more than a one-sided extraction of so-called value.
This transactional approach based on pitch and pounce has tarnished the profession.
Unfortunately, the race to the bottom is occurring at rapid rates within many sales channels. Undercutting and monumental discounts is not a long-term business strategy. This approach is not sustainable and puts your client relationships at risk.
What are you willing to do to mitigate these risks?
领英推荐
Transactional relationships are expensive and not sustainable.
These transactional conversations may lead to short-term growth but long-term failures... All at the expense of your clients.
How likely will your customers become clients and come back for more and more and more if you continue to deliver a transactional type of experience?
In my heart, I sincerely believe you are missing out on a ginormous opportunity to become a part of your clients’ lives, by operating with a transactional mindset.
Transactional conversations alienate, transformational conversations build client communities.
What will you choose?
WHAT WILL YOU DO TO TRANSFORM YOUR CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS?
Authentic transformation happens outside your comfort zone.
I believe we need some transactional-type conversations in our daily sales lives, however; there are plenty of opportunities to move those conversations to transformational.
It's about quality over quantity! I believe deep meaningful transformational conversations are more powerful, effective and sustainable than transactional ones.
"I think for any relationship to be successful, there needs to be loving communication, appreciation, and understanding."
Miranda Kerr
Think about the above quote... How can you develop loving communication, appreciation and understanding with a transactional mindset? Simple, you can't.
How much untapped revenue potential are you leaving on the table by operating with a transactional mindset?
Imagine for a moment... What would happen if you captured 1-2% additional market share inside your client base? What would that equate to in dollars? What would that do to your budget numbers? How would this make you feel?
I believe sales professionals with a transformational mindset:
To experience this, you must be willing to open your heart, share your wisdom, and your purpose.
You must be willing to give to receive.
Yes, a transactional mindset will yield you short-term satisfaction, however; a transformational mindset becomes part of your foundation. It encompasses the being of who you are and how you see the world.
This transformational approach is where you explore...
This is next level thinking and will catapult your sales career.
Transformational experiences create transformational relationships.
This is the crux of Selling from the Heart and why soft skills will yield you hard dollars!
I will leave you all with this... Transactions are replaceable, transformation is irreplaceable.
The choice is yours.
Welcome to the?Selling From the Heart?podcast. We sit down with?Amy Franko, a sales leader who built a successful B2B career with IBM and Lenovo before pivoting to entrepreneurship with a focus on sales consulting, training, and leadership excellence. Amy is also the author of The Modern Seller.
Amy's insight on selling from the heart is centered on sincerity and substance. Not only must salespeople be genuinely consultative to help clients make decisions, but they must also be able to "bring the goods" and have the business acumen that allows them to make smart recommendations. Amy also provides suggestions so sellers can determine if their approach is actually consultative.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Consensus building does not mean agreement, it's a compromise - Amy: "The idea of consensus building, and the consensus isn't necessarily 100% agreement. You have a room of 5, 8, 10 people that are involved in maybe a very complex opportunity, the odds of every single one of them agreeing on everything is really small."
"There are tradeoffs that have to happen or maybe some difficult conversations and we as a sales professional or sales leader in that conversation, we can actually guide that and help them to have those conversations and make those tradeoffs so they can get to a point where they could make a decision."
Create a question bank before every sales conversation - Amy: "Before you get every conversation, having that mindset of how can I best help the customer, how can I best serve the customer? The great question is an excellent place to start and I often encourage my clients to create a question bank. You only need maybe 3 or 4 questions to go into any sales conversation. They have to be the right questions, but that type of individual prep."
Connect with Amy and get The Modern Seller:
Amy Franko: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/amyfranko/
Website: https://amyfranko.com/
Learn more about Darrell and Larry:
Website: https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/
Got a video about how you sell from the heart? Share it by texting VIDEO to 21000.
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Sales kickoff speaker helping you turn prospects into profits, it all starts with prospecting with integrity.
2 年You’re once again spot on. We have to view transactional selling as like racing down a dead-end street. We’ll get their fast but once you arrive there’s no where to go,
As a leader, you want to lead cohesive teams that fulfill their potential and perform at the highest level. At WHY NOT Leadership - we help you unlock the secret to getting there faster!
2 年Spot on once again Larry Levine! Make it about the relationship and the business will flourish organically. If you make it about the transaction you’ll always be chasing transactions!
The busy attorney's financial advisor. Minimizing your taxes today and tomorrow. So you can make better financial decisions. Stop tipping Uncle Sam!
2 年Sent this to my team this morning. Good stuff! Thanks Larry Levine
In a world of empty suits, I’m leading a movement of authenticity, integrity, and trust inside the sales profession
2 年Dan Gilroy, Dan Carroll, Ted Behen, Tim Horton, Trey Stroud - T.H. we were just speaking about this a few days ago. Jay Holden, Toby Bronson curious as to your thoughts. Have a prosperous week.
Retired Commercial Banker
2 年Larry You nailed it again! Just about all of us are taught in primary,secondary and higher education to know the answers. Having powerful questions yields understanding and more often than not those questions are the pathway to solutions and establishment of credibility. Time for our educational systems to help students understand there is more value in asking the right questions versus having answers.