Sunday, January 5, 2020

Your Sales Bank Account - Post Black Friday Assessment - How is Your Bank Account Looking?


Black Friday is when most retailer’s profits go from that red line to the black and start showing their annual profits. It all profits from here forward for them. So, now that we are past Black Friday, it might be a good time to take a look at your bank account and see if you are in the black too. But the Bank account I am talking about is your relationship bank account. This account does have debits and credits just the one at your financial institution, but these debits and credits come in the form of the way you contribute to or burden the people you interact with in your daily lives. Do you help to make other people’s day better or do you make their day a little harder? Credit or debit?

I used to use this metaphor with my kids. I would explain to them that they have an emotional bank account with other people.  Further explaining that when you sarcastically insult a person (even jokingly) you are making a withdrawal from your emotional bank account with them and if you haven’t made enough deposits (compliments and other ways of building them up) then you are risking becoming overdrawn. Take it a step further and you could even take it to the point of bankruptcy or being cut-off. Thus, the importance of deposits (credits) in your accounts.

So how does this apply to sales?

1.      Doing (and accepting) favors – these are easy credits and are double good. Not only can you build up your relationship account balance, but you can also establish credibility in subject matter expertise or as a trusted advisor. Just as important is allowing other to do favors for you. “Give the gift of giving,” This is a tough thing to do for some people, but allowing people to do favors for you is also a credit in some ways. You are allowing them to contribute to you and that is fulfilling to a lot of people. If you are in need of something and you don’t let your peers help, they can actually debit your relationship account for that.

2.      Empathy – knowing when to be in “sales mode” and when to be a partner and work on the relationship. As sales people, we all have quotas and we don’t have a relationship quota. We need to close. We need to ask for the business. But, you can gain relationship credits when you know when to ask for the business and when not to. I recently visited a customer who was talking to me about the last 3 jobs they lost to their competitor. Had I jumped into a mode where I stated asking where can I get my next sales from them, they would have debited my relationship account with the fact that I wasn’t in tune with the clues that they were struggling to give me business and maybe even needed my help finding some for themselves. I could have even gained a deposit (credit) had I asked where I could plug into their business and assist, as a partner, in helping them to win over this competitor of theirs.

3.      Making long term investments – just like in finances, the relationship investments you make should be long term ones. This takes aligning of goals and beliefs. It also takes a period of getting to know each other and above all else – LISTENING. If your partner knows you are listening and understanding their needs, you are making regular deposits day in and day out. Sure, it is okay to diversify your investments and have some short term, high risk ones, but that needs to be part of your strategy and not by accident. You very much need to have a healthy amount of long term stable relationships and that takes investing.

Using these and similar bank account building techniques, you will have strong relationships. In fact, you will be rich. The natural result will be increased sales and who knows you may end up being rich in other ways too.

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