How time flies. I remember back in the 1970’s and 1980’s when professional selling was easy and a whole lot of fun. We were Lone Wolfs back then. We controlled everything, we were professionals, and we owned a patch of dirt. All we had to do to maintain ownership was to produce sales. We had our tools, a company car, trunk files, brochures, samples and a calendar/card file. We even carried roles of dimes so we could make those mandatory calls twice a day to the office by pulling into a rest area or going in a local restaurant to use the pay phone. (Do we still have pay phones?)  As time passed, some of us even got car phones. Sure, we did call reports and had sales meetings, but make no mistake, we were pros. We owned that patch of dirt and most of the customers who were on it. If we chose to leave for greener pastures, most of our customers went with us. We had respect. Everything focused on relationships. I even remember my first sales training seminar, "Needs Satisfaction Selling." I was a rookie and having the time of my life. In fact, being a rookie was part of my strategy (although back then I didn't know I had a strategy) to develop relationships, especially with new accounts:

"Mr. Customer, I'm kind of new at this. I'm learning a lot. Can you help me understand some things about your business?"

I called myself a rookie well past my fifth anniversary as a sales representative. Most purchasing agents felt sorry for me. They wanted to help. They wanted to teach. And, what better way to begin a relationship than to be the recipient of advice and counsel?

That's what relationship selling was all about. It worked. Cocktail lunches, ball games, golf, fishing trips and visits to a hunting lodge were all part of our repertoire. These were tools of the trade, relationship builders.

Getting to know your customer as a person, that's what it was all about. He became your friend. To do that, you couldn't spend most of your time talking about features and benefits or doing little product demos. No, you asked questions, questions about them, and then you shut up and listened. Another tidbit of advice from a mentor that stuck with me through the years emphasized that very thought:

"If you spend one hour with a customer and you talk for 45 minutes making a presentation about features and benefits, your company and God knows what else and the customer only talks for 15 minutes, you're a dead man. You'll walk out of there and your customer is going to think you're a loser, no matter how good your pitch was. But, listen to me, son, if you spend an hour with that customer, you ask a few questions and let him talk for 45 minutes about himself, the sale is 75% made. You'll walk away and the customer will think you are the greatest thing since peanut butter. You made a great sales call. How can he not think that when he spent 45 minutes telling you all about himself? You alone have the control."

Change is the Only Guarantee in Life

Things have changed in the last 20-30 years. We have gone through an evolutionary process in the world of professional sales. We cannot be Lone Wolves anymore. We cannot control every piece of data, every contact with our customer, or be in command of the total customer relationship. To succeed and grow as a professional in sales today we cannot afford to "own" the account. Buyers are more sophisticated today. Selling is more complex. It isn't good enough to just have product knowledge. We must have industry knowledge, market knowledge and, more importantly, we have to understand our customers' customers. To excel in sales today we have to educate our customers and help them make money. We must become total solution providers.

Words of Wisdom

Everyone needs a mentor to become really good in sales. Sure, I treated my customers and potential customers as mentors. It made them feel good and it helped me build that relationship that was key to success in the 70's and 80's. But, we all have one or two special individuals in our lives that make a difference in our success as sales representatives: a former boss, colleague or professor, someone who turns the light on in our head and keeps it burning.

Those of us who have been successful in sales could probably write a book on lessons learned from our mentors. But, there are generally a few comments that stick with us for a lifetime. When it comes to relationship selling, two have stuck with me over the past 30 years:

"Establish a relationship with your customer, Rick. Build his trust, gain his respect and he'll tell you how to do business with him."

Times Have Changed

Today’s professional sales people understand that. Times have changed. Consolidations continue to occur. Purchasing is a profession. Customers are smarter. They gain more market power everyday. Success today depends on an architecture aligned with customers' needs and profit opportunities.

Relationships Still Matter

The more you develop your relationships throughout the customer’s organization, the easier it is to become or remain supplier of choice.  Ultimately, any company is simply a collection of individuals, each with his own interests, motivations and biases.  Key players are the people who heavily influence the buying decision or heavily influence those who make the buying decision.  They obviously deserve special consideration.  Keep in mind that informal relationships within your customer’s organization may be more important than the formal reporting structure.  For example, the receptionist or the repairman that plays golf with the owner may be key players that can contribute to your success.  Sales representatives are successful today because they gain the majority of their targeted customers business. They manage the relationship and continuously build relationship equity

A positive mental attitude or a constructive and optimistic way of looking at yourself, your work, and your management goes hand-an-hand with being successful no matter what company you work for, no matter what industry you are in. A positive mental attitude is the key ingredient necessary to create relationship equity with your customers. Developing this attitude of unshakable self-confidence and enthusiasm, no matter what is going on around you is your passport to becoming successful.