What is it?: Relationship Selling is all about building a friendship or relationship with your customers and listening to their needs. The advertising process involves having sales staff form well established associations with customers in order to promote purchases. Even if it doesn't usually employ the marketing strategy, a business might still use relationship selling for mainly desirable groups of customers that might gain access to such benefits as the ability to communicate with more knowledgeable staff members or a more favourable product servicing arrangement.
Pros: -Increase in profits
-Save money
-Improved Customer Experience- By giving all employees access to customer data, the customer has a better opportunity to efficiently and effectively have positive, resourceful connections across all of the company's touch points (in person, phone, e-mail)
-Customer Retention and Reduce Costs- Many companies believe that by proving a great customer experience, you produce loyalty that has increased affects over time through increased revenue and lower costs. Loyal customers buy consistently and in large bulks over time. They typically require less investment to retain than new customer's cost to obtain.
Cons: -Although costs could be lower, they could also be higher
-May miss out on customers
-May over-advertise
-Company Overhaul- Starting a program often involves a major repair(overhaul) of company culture and employee roles. Each employee is likely to see changes in their role and responsibilities. This often means overcoming change resistance, setting new cultural standards and training.
When it is Best to be Used: With relationship selling, referrals are one of the best ways to make new sales. If an individual lets their friend know they got a good deal at a company, that person is more likely to try out the same company and also buy or be interested if they are called to set up an appointment. Considering it is important to build strong relationships, once a relationship is built, you’ve shown you care and earned their trust, you’re on the road to making that person a customer! Knowing their needs and finding out their fears can help find solutions for them that are exactly on-target with their needs and it could help build an even stronger relationship. With a relationship in place, working out details is not an issue. Those details become obstacles if you don’t have the strong relationship. Therefore, relationship selling is best used whenever a customer enters a store.
Pros: -Increase in profits
-Save money
-Improved Customer Experience- By giving all employees access to customer data, the customer has a better opportunity to efficiently and effectively have positive, resourceful connections across all of the company's touch points (in person, phone, e-mail)
-Customer Retention and Reduce Costs- Many companies believe that by proving a great customer experience, you produce loyalty that has increased affects over time through increased revenue and lower costs. Loyal customers buy consistently and in large bulks over time. They typically require less investment to retain than new customer's cost to obtain.
Cons: -Although costs could be lower, they could also be higher
-May miss out on customers
-May over-advertise
-Company Overhaul- Starting a program often involves a major repair(overhaul) of company culture and employee roles. Each employee is likely to see changes in their role and responsibilities. This often means overcoming change resistance, setting new cultural standards and training.
When it is Best to be Used: With relationship selling, referrals are one of the best ways to make new sales. If an individual lets their friend know they got a good deal at a company, that person is more likely to try out the same company and also buy or be interested if they are called to set up an appointment. Considering it is important to build strong relationships, once a relationship is built, you’ve shown you care and earned their trust, you’re on the road to making that person a customer! Knowing their needs and finding out their fears can help find solutions for them that are exactly on-target with their needs and it could help build an even stronger relationship. With a relationship in place, working out details is not an issue. Those details become obstacles if you don’t have the strong relationship. Therefore, relationship selling is best used whenever a customer enters a store.