Strengthen the Relationship After Sales
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain the five steps of the Dale Carnegie Sales Model as it relates to post-sales follow-through.
- Explain the value of follow-through with the customer.
Keep the Relationship Strong Throughout the Entire Cycle
As you learned in Relationship Selling, only intentional sales professionals who foster authentic client-centered relationships can truly help their customers succeed. A strong customer relationship enables sales professionals to build trust, offer insights, and then help the customer meet their business objectives.
Dale Carnegie’s proprietary Sales Model and Process is adaptable within any sales culture and fits any salesperson’s style. Dale Carnegie recommends that you treat sales like you treat any other relationship. It’s give and take, with a heavy emphasis on give!
Dale Carnegie reminds you that the sales process is a cycle, instead of a set of steps with a beginning and end. This is how it’s relevant after you’ve made the sale.
Connect
The first opportunity to begin building rapport and trust. Show that you care about the customer and their needs. Stay connected with the customer by checking in with their implementation of the solution and afterward, to ensure they are succeeding. Consider the Trust Is Dead whitepaper. This connection goes a long way to developing the customer into a Champion and developing more sales stories.
Collaborate
Uncover true needs, wants, goals, and desires. Work with the customer to find a solution that will meet their needs and goals. You can also use the question model to dig deeper into their current successes with the solution you sold them. If you skip this step, you won’t have clarity around what’s important to them as time goes on.
Create
When you have a good understanding of needs or wants, you can create a sales presentation that’s relevant and meaningful. Tailor evidence, examples, and how you position our solution. Perhaps there’s a need for additional training. Maybe the customer can use help from a subject matter expert as they continue their journey.
Confirm
Confirm with the customer that the solution will be effective. Now that you have a solid relationship, the solutions you create with them can be small or large. Will it solve their problem? Will it present an opportunity? Are objections resolved? The point is that you’re continuously providing value.
Commit
Customers commit to the purchase and you commit to following up and continuing a relationship with them. A trusting relationship with the customer is the most important factor in making the sale. This is because trusting relationships can lead to repeat business, larger purchases, and referrals.
Explore the Value of Follow-Through
Follow-through activities are an opportunity to shape the customer’s positive perception of you and your organization. At the same time, you lay the groundwork for future business.
You create customer loyalty.
Would you rather do business with someone who forgot all about you after the sale was made or someone who remembered you and sent a thank-you note and checked in from time to time? Following through is one of the best ways to convince the customer that you are genuinely interested in them.
You set yourself apart from the competition.
Many customers wait to see who will follow through with them before making a final buying decision. They may call or visit several competitors, and then see who seems the most responsive and who follows through later.
You reassure the customer that they have made the right decision.
Following through reduces the possibility of buyer’s remorse. In your follow-through activities you convince customers that you are the right person to do business with. And they can trust you to follow through after the sale.
You can deal positively with any issues that come up.
If the customer does have any issues or doubts after the sale, you can deal with it proactively when it comes up in your follow-through contacts. You can set things right and reassure customers that they have made a good buying decision.
You have an opportunity to remind the buyer of additional products and services.
You can follow through with reminders, special promotions, offers, or time specific opportunities for the customer. It doesn't have to be the only reason for following through, but the opportunities are there for more business, especially when you have earned the customers’ trust and respect with your professionalism.
You express thanks.
A little bit of gratitude goes a long way in terms of building customer trust and loyalty. Everyone appreciates the thank you when it's genuine and expressed sincerely. It makes us feel better as professionals, too.
Remember all the focus and thinking in the world will not bring you more sales. You must act to make a change. In the following units, you take a deeper look at what needs to be done after this trusting relationship has been established and you are now working with your customer.
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