The Perfect Balance for Sales Success

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I recently changed dentists. My new dentist doesn’t talk. Oh, he can physically talk, but beyond, “Hello.” “Open.” “Close.” “Done.” and “Good-bye”, he. does. not. talk. Not exactly a hoot to be around. My old dentist not only talked throughout our session, but would occasionally step outside his office into the waiting room where there is a piano and play some jazz for his patients. Visiting him was fun. But why I dropped him reminded me what the basic requirements are for sales success.

A Necessary Balance

There is a fine balance that needs to be achieved between quality of your deliverable and interpersonal skills– particularly if you sell premium priced products and services.

I dropped my old dentist because his work had become unreliable. As much as I liked him and the experience of going to his office, I reached a point where his inconsistent work (at least with me) outweighed his strong interpersonal skills.

At a time when clients have many options and can research competitors, it is very risky to rely too heavily on just your strong relationship skills. Your products and services, at a minimum, need to actually do the job and, ideally, exceed expectations.

Salespeople who have a high quality deliverable plus strong interpersonal skills are likely to be Olympic Gold Sales Performers. Buyers both trust the product and like doing business with these sellers. These sellers have the

Easiest closes
Biggest contracts
Highest client retention
Greatest # of referrals

Salespeople who have a lower quality deliverable but strong interpersonal skills can also succeed, but are at constant risk. People are buying you, not necessarily your product. However, like my former dentist, whose services deteriorated, he became subject to

Loss of business
Fewer referrals (at least from me)

Keep Your Balance

Too often, we rely on personal relationships for continued business and forget to re-visit and improve our offerings. As the new year approaches, what can you do to keep your competitive product/service edge in 2022?

Upgrade your features, offers, packages?
Invest in new technologies? new hires?
Devise ways to make it easier, faster, more efficient to work with you?
Create new products?
Strengthen your online presence?
Freshen up your marketing strategy?
Survey your clients to find out what they want?

Consistent success depends on that balance, or as Goldman Sachs said in a recent Wall Street Journal article, “We’re leading, not just competing.”

Anne Miller

Words Matter – Make What You Say Pay!

P.S Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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