Two Relationships You Need to Survive the Recession

Two Relationships You Need to Survive the Recession

Ed Emde - Executive Vice President of Wilson Learning

Are your relationships recession-proof? If you aren't certain, now is the time to take stock of both your customer relationships and the relationship-building capabilities of your sales team. That's because the strength – or weakness – of your customer relationships will be a deciding factor in how well you weather the recession, says Ed Emde, executive vice president of Wilson Learning. To build enduring connections with customers and "competitor-proof" your relationships, Emde says sales reps need "two distinctive kinds of skills focused on two distinctive kinds of relationships." Here's a look at each one:

Little "r" relationships. These are the interpersonal relationships between members of a selling team and members of a buying team. They are built gradually, over time, and rooted in "a salesperson's ability to demonstrate that he or she is trustworthy, competent, and credible as a business consultant and advisor," says Emde. These relationships are most effective when they're built not with just one or two people in the buying organization, but with an entire network of people who come to view the sales rep as a trusted business partner. To build little "r" relationships, Emde says reps must know how to establish credibility, build trust, demonstrate the value of the relationship on every call, and be savvy about identifying the right people with whom to forge connections.

What's the cost of not building these little "r" relationships? When your relationships are weak, or you've eroded them with substandard performance, you leave the door wide open for your competitors, warns Emde.

Big "R" Relationships. Little "r" relationships are crucial, but they're vulnerable. As your contacts are promoted or downsized or there's a change in the way decisions are made, your little "r" relationships can be threatened or rendered meaningless, forcing you to constantly build new little "r" relationships. That's why you also need Big "R" Relationships in place. "A Big 'R' Relationship transcends ties with individuals," explains Emde. "Big 'R' connections are based on business benefits that are highly valued because they are aligned with the customer's corporate business strategy, goals, and critical success factors." In other words, if you supply a critical piece of technology to a customer, that customer is going to be just as concerned about your R&D direction, your long-term strategy, and your stability as he is about the product itself.

"While still interested in inducements such as price and delivery options, companies in Big 'R' Relationships are 'buying a company,' not just a product," says Emde. Obviously, not all your customers have the potential for a Big 'R' Relationship, but when you accurately identify the ones who do have that potential, and then you effectively create alignment between your two companies, you slam the door on every competitor that walks in with little more to offer than a pricing discount.

In closing, Emde points out that many companies are mistakenly taking a product-centered approach to surviving the recession, focusing on things like brand building and price cutting. But that only works until the next rep walks in with a lower price. Strong little 'r' and Big 'R' relationships, on the other hand "offer a unique competitive advantage by delivering real business value deriving from the relationship itself rather than from a product or price," Emde concludes. "The ability of a sales team to leverage interpersonal connections and corporate business alignment becomes the best and most reliable resource for maintaining current market share and driving growth, even in an unpredictable and chaotic economic environment."

For more information, visit www.wilsonlearning.com.