Two Sales Techniques to Build Relationships with Occasional Customers

Published: Thu, 03/05/26

Updated: Thu, 03/05/26

Two Sales Techniques to Build Relationships with Occasional Customers

by Dave Kahle

Reprinted with permission of the publisher from

HOW TO SELL ANYTHING TO ANYONE ANYTIME^©

2011 Dave Kahle

Published by Career Press, Pompton Plains, NJ. 800-227-3371.

One of the most powerful one-on-one sales calls you can make is what I call the ROF call. That stands for “Relationship building, Opportunity identifying, Follow up” call. It’s the sales call you make after the customer has purchased and implemented your offer. For the realtor, it’s the call you make on your buyers after they have moved into their new home. For the car salesperson, it’s the phone call after the customer has driven off the lot with the new car. For the B2B salesperson, it’s the visit you make after they have begun to use your new service or product. And for our free-lance grant writer, it is the visit you arrange after the grant application has been submitted.

Why would you do it? After all, you’ve made the sale, because you understand the bigger picture. It’s not just about this sale; it’s about the relationship.

It is not just about this sale; it’s about the relationship.

It’s powerful because it’s unusual. When was the last time you had a salesperson contact you after the purchase? Since you will be one of the very few salespeople who actually care enough to follow up after the sale, you will stand out, head and shoulders, above your competitors.

Here’s an example. Fifteen years ago, I needed to hold a small meeting with about eight of my customers. I rented a small conference room for a couple hours in a local hotel. No meals or rooms involved. Just a small conference room. I think it cost $25.00. It was probably the smallest sale that the meetings department of that hotel could make. Two days after the meeting, I received a phone call from the salesperson who rented the room to me.

“Was everything satisfactory?” she wanted to know. “Was the room clean, the temperature OK?”

I was so impressed by the fact that she cared enough to call that I recommended that hotel consistently and used it for every local meeting I held for the next 15 years.

The ROF call is powerful for one more, very specific and tangible reason. It often produces additional opportunities. At the end of this very specific sales call, you ask for other opportunities.

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Here’s how you do it. After you have delivered what they purchased from you, then call them for an appointment. When you are one-on-one with them, first ask about their satisfaction with what they bought. At this point, either of one or two things will happen. They will indicate they are satisfied, or they weren’t. If they weren’t, you need to apologize and do whatever you can to fix it. It’s good that you found out right now, before it has a chance to fester and spread to other potential customers.

If they are satisfied, great. Confirm it. Then ask them what other opportunities they have for you and your service or product in the near future. If they indicate something, good for you, you have an additional opportunity to work on. (You have ‘found out what they want’ again) If they don’t, it’s OK.

But you are not done yet. Now, you want to probe for external opportunities. These are potential relationships and opportunities for you outside of the confines of this customer’s reach. Does he know other people to whom he can refer you? In a large organization, it could be other departments or plants. In a smaller one, it could be business colleagues. For an individual, it could be friends and neighbors.

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How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime has been recognized by three international entities as “one of the five best English language business books.” Buy it now at a discount. Visit www.sellanythingtoanyone.net

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If they provide you with a name or two, you now have a short cut into an engagement with a “right person”. And you are back at the start of the sales process with someone else. Since you have a recommendation from a trusted reference... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

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