254: Building Customer Loyalty

<p>We all know that without trust there will be no sale and much worse than that, no ongoing sales.  So how do we build trust with our buyers? It is a critical salesperson facility, because research shows that 63% of buyers would rather buy from someone they completely trust, than from someone who gives them a better price.  Think about that – trust trumps price.  What is the cost of creating trust versus having to resort to discount pricing to get deals done?</p> <p> </p> <p>Our mindset is the key. We have to be thinking “relationship” and “partnership” with the buyer, rather than a single transaction, a fleeting encounter, a “one and done”.  We always want the reorder, don’t we? Of course we do.  Because our thinking is “long term relationship”, our communication will also reflect this approach.  Once our communication changes, the buyer will relax and will be more open to building a long-term relationship.  Buyers are experts at sensing danger and duplicity.  They can smell a rat from a long way away and they are permanently on guard against being ripped off.  How happy they are to find a salesperson they can genuinely trust.  We say, “a good man is hard to find” and we can also say “a good salesperson is hard to find”.  When you are the buyer and you find one you are relieved.</p> <p> </p> <p>What is our salesperson mindset about winning in business? Is it “in the buyer’s success lies our success” and so the business must benefit both parties?  If we are thinking like this then we don’t want: Win-Lose or Lose-Lose or Lose-Win outcomes. We want Win-Win between the buyer and seller.  This sounds simple, but desperate salespeople have trained buyers to be very wary about whose interests this transaction is really designed to serve.</p> <p> </p> <p>Buyers can feel our salesperson intention and if it is “we win- they lose”, they can feel that too.  We have all made purchasing mistakes which we have come to regret and have have had a harsh internal conversation with ourselves pledging “that will never happen again”