.jpg "Sales Force Readiness…the Relational Approach")
Sales Force Readiness…the Relational Approach
Hundreds of books have been written about gender differences. Communication styles, verbal and non-verbal body language, the list goes on and on. But has anyone told your sales force this? Today most sales forces and sales managers are still male dominated. Please see the first three articles in this series for more details. (See "Related Links," below.)
Gender differences research has shown that women tend to be Relational Buyers. They want to understand your company first. They want to have a strong sense of trust in their salesperson. They may, depending on the situation, be open to one of many possible solutions. Finally, when the process is completed, they need to feel absolutely no remorse that they made the right decision.
This is also true of relational men (and yes they are out there). The challenge is that this relational process is in direct contradiction to how Transactional Salespeople have been trained to sell (See the Third article in this series, "Related Links). To effectively sell to all relational buyers you need to take a different approach.
Relational Selling encourages the sales person to build rapport, genuinely understand the buyer and jointly solve the problem. In Relational Selling the salesperson needs to think about connecting their company and product at a relational level before moving to the next step.
In Relational Selling there are Six Key Steps. As you may remember, in Transactional Selling there are only four. This is because Relational Selling takes more planning, and involves more time listening and connecting than in the Transactional Model.
To demonstrate this, let’s examine the Six Steps present in Relational Selling and show key points to demonstrate/build a relationship.
| Step in the Sales Process |
Desired Outcome |
Suggestions/Questions to Ask |
| Pre-Call Planning/ Planning for Success |
To be thinking about how you will build a relationship with your customer. |
- How will I begin to understand their unique needs?
- What will I do to demonstrate my company's credibility?
- What will I say to make them trust me as a valued business partner?
- Have I thought about how gender differences might impact this negotiation?
|
| Opening the Call/ Establishing the Relationship |
To establish credibility & trust in you and your company. |
- Be open and genuine. With women, intuition is real and if she senses for a minute you are not being genuine or are too rehearsed she will shut you down.
- Ask them open-ended questions, "what are you looking for from a company that you buy from?"
- Be prepared to spend more time with relational buyers. They want to get to know you and your company.
- Follow her lead. Once she is ready to proceed you may begin to discuss your product/solution.
|
| Identifying the Customer's Needs |
To be open-minded and not present a one size fits all solution |
- Realize that relational buyers may be open to more than one solution. Salespeople often try to verbalize the needs of the customers too quickly to the great irritation of the customer.
- Relational buyers are whole brain thinkers and are processing multiple data points and multiple possible solutions and they are looking for connection points.
- Ask questions like "Tell me more about your ideal solution?" or "What would you imagine the ideal solution to be?" If asked with genuine respect, this can be very helpful in crafting a relationship and a solution.
|
| Creating Value with a Solution |
To eliminate all possible solutions other than the correct one for her |
- Now you can begin to discuss how you bring value—both through yourself as well as through your product.
- Begin to discuss their ideal solutions one by one. How does your product uniquely meet their needs? Prepare to spend a good deal of time here.
- At the end of the process, they want to know that despite all their doubts and searching for an ideal solution they are not going to regret buying your product or service.
|
| Discussing Issues/Closing |
To resolve any open issues |
- If you have followed all of the above suggestions this will be as easy as writing up the order.
- If, however, at this point she still says 'No' realize that you are done. To women, (and relational men) 'No means No'. Once you have explored all possible solutions and not been able to come up with a viable solution you are done. No amount of 'Objection Handling' will fix this situation. (This is the opposite for Transactional Buyers).
|
| Post Sales/ Following-up and Customer Satisfaction |
To ensure on-going satisfaction |
- Follow-up after the sale to obtain future business.
- If you have been successful you can expect referral business in the future.
- Women are ten times more likely than a man to refer you to another client if they are satisfied
|
(This is the last in a series of articles on Sales Force Readiness and Gender Differences)
Jeff Halter,
Jeffery is author of the book Selling to Men, Selling to Women. A featured keynote speaker, his work regarding gender differences in the sales process and book were recently quoted in Tom Peter’s new work Xellence Always. He has been a contributing writer to the Tom Peters Times and PINK Magazine. A passionate advocate in the development of women in leadership he currently sits on the national advisory Committee's for Women’s Food Service Forum (Executive Programming), Network of Executive Women (Multicultural Competency) and Simmons Business School’s Business Advisory Board.
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