Myths of Business2Business Sales #1: “Great Relationships” 

by Dave Kahle

The world is full of B2B  salespeople who claim, quite proudly, to have great relationships with their customers.  If that were true, it really would be great.

But unfortunately, “great relationships” is too often a veil that salespeople hide behind to keep from exposing the weakness in their sales skills.

Here’s How it Works

An experienced B2B salesperson believes that he/she has developed great relationships with customers.  Therefore, he spends his time visiting these great customers and focusing on maintaining the relationship.  He can’t really dig deeper into the motivations and needs of the customer because he’s never really had those conversations before, and to do so would interject a new and disparate element into the relationship.

Better to not take the risk.

He doesn’t present the new product or service too strongly, because, after all, it might jeopardize the relationship.  And besides, he knows this customer well enough to know that they would never be interested in this new product.

He never closes or asks for a resolution of an offer, because he doesn’t want to hear a rejection from that great relationship.  Too risky.  And he continues to invest selling time in this account, regardless of its potential, because to do any less would be to jeopardize the relationship.

Great Sales Managers Create Great Sales Forces

Alas, very few sales managers know what it takes to become great.  They have never been exposed to the best practices of great sales management.

We can fix that.  Our Kahle Way® Sales Management System has transformed thousands of sales managers, enriched thousands of sales people, and spearheaded the growth of countless companies,

“This system puts into concrete form all of the processes, tools and techniques I sensed were lacking in our sales management. I can’t wait to put them into action on Monday!”

– Pat O’Donnell, Noble Gas Solutions

For years, we taught it in a live seminar.  Now, we’ve made it available in a on-line course, complemented with live Zoom meetings.

The relationship becomes the end, instead of a means to an end.

Paralyzed by the idea of “great relationships” the B2B salesperson forgoes the basics of consultative selling and loses track of the essential function of sales and the heart of the sales person’s job – to bring revenue into the company.  Striving for, and protecting “great relationships” becomes a deterrent to effective selling.  It is, particularly among more experienced salespeople, one of the biggest obstacles to sales productivity.

I’ve often thought that some marginally-performing salespeople, aware of their lack of sales skills, intentionally hide behind the screen of “great relationships” to excuse their lack of results.

The Cold Hard Truth in Sales: 

In business, the relationship is a means to an end.  Business in general, and sales specifically, is not the same as family, friends, or romance in that the relationship is not an end in itself.  In sales, if the relationship doesn’t result in revenue coming into the business, then the relationship is not valuable.

The result is the reason for the relationship.  The measurement of the depth and power of a business relationship is not how much you know about the customer, nor how well you get along.  The measurement of a business relationship is the amount of dollars generated.  If the relationship really is great, then... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

“Sales time” is that portion of a salesperson’s work week wherein they are interacting with their customers and prospects.  It can be on the phone, over an interactive webinar, or in person.

         It’s the heart of the job, wherein the salesperson exercises all the skills, concepts, practices and tools he/she has acquired over the years.  Sales time is when the salesperson expresses the essence of what it means to be a professional salesperson.  If it were not for sales time, there would be no salespeople. That makes the decision as to how to invest sales time one of the most important decisions that a salesperson makes.