If you buy into the idea that relationships are a valuable currency in your business to business sales career, then you’ll not only want to build new relationships, but nurture and maintain existing relationships.
A common myth that seems to pervade many sales organizations is that once you’ve established a relationship, you have that relationship in perpetuity. It doesn’t seem to matter what vertical one looks at; it could be technology or financial services or any number of other sectors, sales people usually target the “next deal”.
The next deal could be business with a new client, it could be selling an existing client a new product, or it could be simply renewing a contract that is soon to expire. Each circumstance shares one common denominator, and that is the need for a client to engage with you.
The most significant gap I’ve witnessed over many years of B2B sales experience is the notion of something I’ll coin as “just in time selling”.
Like just in time inventory control used in manufacturing, just in time selling means allocating time, energy, and resources to opportunities which are imminent. If you’re in a services business and you have a three year contract in place, what is the point in maintaining contact once the initial deal is in place a running smoothly? Is your time not better spent trying to find the “next customer”? Why should you bother reconnecting with this client until they are ready to talk about renewing the contract?
The troubles with this strategy are numerous. Let’s point out a few.
- People move. In today’s environment, personnel are constantly on the move. The person who made the decision today may not be the person making the decision three years from now.
- If you believe relationships are that valuable currency we talked about earlier, then you’ll accept the logic that the person who bought from you in their old job might well buy from you in their new job.
- Prospecting. You would be misguided indeed if you thought you were the only one who prospects. Having said that, who are your targets? The very people who are doing business with your competitors. To not recognize that your competitors will do the same is dangerous. There will always be a competitor looking to “share” your relationship. One of the best ways to enable this? Lose contact with an existing client.
At the most basic level, existing relationships become vulnerable when we become complacent or indolent in how we manage them.
Take the time, look through your contacts once a quarter or more often and make a point of reaching out to the people you’ve lost contact with. It doesn’t always have to be about business, what’s wrong with calling to say “hello”. In fact, it is the contact or touch points one has with clients that has nothing to do with “what’s in it for you” that are the easiest, pleasant, and most meaningful.
Don’t get caught flat footed. You relationship capital is like a garden. If you don’t water it…..