The data that generate more sales: Building strong relationships with potential customers
Whenever the subject of relationships comes up and I ask how important they are in the sales and business process, I usually get the answer that they're the most important part. I think we all know that the more a prospect or customer likes us, the more likely they'll do business with us, regardless of most other factors. In fact, a prospect will buy a higher-priced, inferior product from someone they like versus someone they don't.
Make no mistake, building solid relationships takes time, effort, energy and money and that's precisely why most people continue to cop out with price and other excuses when they lose a sale. So, if you decide you'd like to do the hard work upfront so you can hang on to customers long term, here's the information you need to gather and use with each customer.
• Name
• Title
• Company
• Address
• Phone number
• Fax number
• Cellphone number
• Home phone number
• Email address
• Birth date (month and day)
• Where they live now
• Where they grew up
• Where they went to school (high school, college, other). What degrees they have and what their majors were
• Activities they were involved in growing up (sports, clubs, student government, fraternities, sororities, etc.)
• Military service, and at what level
• What, if anything, you know about their political or religious beliefs
• Subjects they like to talk about and what subjects you should avoid
• Where they were employed previously
• Activities they're involved in (sports, clubs, groups, trade associations, travel, hobbies)
• Their levels of involvement and proficiency (Board of directors? Instructor? Scratch golfer?)
• Are they related or connected to anyone else you know?
• What do they consider their most significant accomplishments?
• Do they plan to retire someday? What would they like to do?
• Where they vacation and where they would like to vacation
• Marital status: a) If married now, how long? b) Anniversary date; c) Spouse's name and birthday; d) Spouse's occupation; e) Spouse's interests
• Children: a) Names, ages and birthdays; b) What activities are they involved in?
You won't gather and use this information on all your customers. Ideally you'll be doing this to build relationships with the top 20 percent of customers that give you 80 percent of your business. In addition, you'll gather and use this information on other good customers, such as those giving you the most referrals. The goal is to reach out to these customers 14 to 18 times per year through a variety of methods, such as birthday, holiday and anniversary cards; thank-you notes; in-person calls, phone calls, emails and regular mail.
While you won't likely get all this information from everyone, the more you have about each customer and the better you know them, the better your relationship can turn out.
Once you have this information, use it. Ultimately, you're looking to make loyal customers and good friends. The more of this information you have and use, the less likely someone will leave you or buy from someone else.
John Chapin is a sales and motivational speaker and trainer based in Auburn. Contact him at johnchapin@completeselling.com.
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