From Consistency to Relationship: The Four Pillars of Successful Selling

Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast , episode 11 . Today we're going to be talking about how to build strong relationships . Many times , as a salesperson , you're going out and you're calling on accounts and you're wondering why you can't get an account from point A to point B . In other words , you can't get them to buy from you .

So you go along and get stalled in the process and you're wondering why you get stalled . And so today we're going to talk about what it is that builds strong relationships . Let's talk about top salespeople . What does it take to be a top salesperson ?

75% of a top salesperson is showing up and following up , being likable and credible . 50% of a top salesperson is showing up and following up . That's all you need to do . You need to show up and follow up , show up and follow up .

An additional 25% is being likable and credible . Show up , follow up , likable , credible 75% . In other words , those four things get you to the place where you're at the top 75% of all salespeople . The next 25% is your sales skills , in other words , your knowledge , your sales abilities , all those other things that go along to the top 25% , which puts you in the top echelon .

Where most salespeople fail is obviously in the 75% . They might show up but they don't follow up . They might be likable , not so credible . So if you're missing any one of those four elements , you're going to be at a severe deficit in sales .

You're making a cold call and you call in a customer right from the beginning . The first time that you contact that customer , you're starting the sales process . The most important thing in the sales process especially in the beginning , but really all the way through a customer relationship is your consistency . Consistency is the key to getting the customer to build confidence in you .

So how does consistency work ? I mean , it's pretty simple , right ? You go in . You say you're going to be there at 10 o'clock .

You show up at 10 o'clock . You show up before 10 o'clock . You have something to talk about . You do a presentation .

You're supposed to follow up on certain items . You consistently follow up . You're consistent in your follow up . You're consistent in everything that you do .

Every aspect of how you deal with this customer do that is consistency . If your call patterns then need to be consistent , you need to be there every other week , however often your frequency is . You need to be frequent After the meeting . You follow up .

Those are consistent things . The consistency then builds confidence . So the customer starts to build confidence in you and in the beginning you are your company . You represent your company .

That's the only thing the customer knows . So it's your consistency that builds confidence that you could be trusted as a salesperson and as a company . Consistency builds confidence . Confidence turns into trust .

Once you have trust in the customer , once they start to trust that you're going to be consistent and that you're going to follow through and that you're going to do the things that you say , then you can build a relationship . You can't build a relationship without trust . You can't get trust without confidence and you can't get confidence without consistency . All those things work together to build a relationship .

Once you build a relationship with the buyer , then you can start to get traction within a customer and you'll get orders because now they have a relationship , they trust you . They say , okay , this company , I can trust and do business with this company and this is gonna be a good thing . The last thing the buyer wants is a problem . The last thing they want is is a nightmare of a supplier , because buyers are very busy and they don't have time to waste on a supplier .

That's going to cause them all kinds of headaches , and that's why the consistency is so important in the beginning , because that builds ultimately the trust and the relationship . One other thing about relationship is you need to build multiple relationships within your customer . The biggest mistake that a salesperson makes is that they only make a relationship with the buyer . They don't have relationships with the sales managers , they don't have relationships with the ownership , they don't have relationships with anybody else in the company , and then what happens is when the buyer leaves .

Now you're in trouble because the buyer leaves and a new buyer comes in and say the new buyer likes your competition . If you haven't built relationships through the company , you could be easily thrown out . If you do build relationships within the company and you know the owner personally and a new buyer comes in and tries to throw you out , it's going to be a lot more difficult because the owner has your trust or you have a relationship with the owner who then you can go to and say , hey , I'm being thrown out of your account , and then they could step in .

You have a much better chance to hold on to accounts for a long time if you build relationships with everybody within the company . I'm going to tell you a story about how I won my wife over and that is 40 years ago , coming up here pretty soon . I met my wife at work . The first date was set up for a Friday night Right before that afternoon .

Friday afternoon , my roommate from college shows up out of nowhere and wants to go out for the weekend and I told him . I said , hey , mark , I've got a date tonight . I really like this girl and I've got to go on this date . He stayed in my apartment .

I went on the date and it's probably a good thing I did , because if I would have canceled that date at the last minute , I may not have gotten another chance . We have a great date . We have another date . After the first date , I called her the next day .

I was consistent when we made a date . I showed up on time . When I said I was going to call , I called . I was consistent all the way through .

Then she was dating someone from college in New York City . Even while we were dating , they were still dating . I knew this , she didn't make any bones about it , and so we were dating and I was here locally with her and he wasn't . So he was at a disadvantage .

So it was a New Year's Eve and my wife decided to go to New York to visit her boyfriend and I knew this obviously wasn't happy about it , because I really liked her and you know I wanted to have a more steady relationship and she was kind of like I'm not sure . So she goes to New York , she has a terrible time and what I did is I bought her a dozen roses for when she came home . Now I had no idea that she had a terrible time , but it was awful . She walks in the door , she sees the dozen roses and I win .

And that is a microcosm of how the sales process works . And 40 years later we still have a great relationship . That's it in a nutshell . Consistency builds confidence , confidence turns into trust , trust becomes a relationship .

If you remember those three items , you will be a much more effective salesperson and you will have better relationships throughout your whole life . That's all I have for today . Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous ? Thanks a lot and have a great day .