Relationship Tips to Become a Sales Super Hero

In my recent visits with credit unions I’ve become acutely aware of the desire for sales training. Yes, that five letter word that seems to be forbidden in our “language” but an activity we all do, perhaps calling it something else. So, I’ll use a more familiar and seemingly acceptable word, a 12-letter word, relationship. That’s what it is all about anyway, isn’t it? Relationships?

Credit unions, as financial cooperatives, make it their mission to help people with financial management and teach financial literacy, by providing lower cost lending alternatives and healthier returns on savings opportunities. We’ve performed that flawlessly for over 80 years by sticking to our motto “Not for Profit, Not for Charity, But for Service.”

Build Friendships, Not Pipelines 

In order to support people we build a very good understanding of them, what they are experiencing in life, where they are financially, what they want to accomplish, and a whole host of other personal situations and knowledge.

By knowing people to this level we build a friendship, the core of a relationship. In the process we provide solutions to needs they have during various stages of their life, from a young saver, to a new driver, to a college student, to a young couple, to a family seeking a home, to a senior retiring.

We build upon this kinship all of the time and as our friends and members discover another need, regardless of what life cycle they may be in, we help them realize and implement another solution.

Subconscious Selling

Well, whether we recognize it or not, we are selling. We do this subconsciously in relationships all of the time. Whether we are a young child pointing out the nutritional content of a cereal (and trying to disguise the fact that there is a toy included in the box) hoping Mom or Dad will add it to the shopping cart, or opening up some basic conversations with someone else because we find them interesting or attractive, or pitching an idea to a manager or board of directors, we are all selling something and building upon the personal connection.

Selling is not convincing someone to buy something that has no value. That is manipulation, and it has no place in a relationship. This type of selling leads to mistrust, the most destructive component of a relationship. Perhaps we’ve experienced this process ourselves. Walk on to some car lots or into some large electronics stores and floor sales people will buzz around us like so many unwanted flies. We have fast-talking people ringing our door bells or calling our phones to sell us magazine subscriptions, or carpet cleaning services, or a new roof on our home. This is not the basis for long-term relationship selling, and they know it. They have a different purpose.

Good sales people build relationships. A good automobile sales person knows that nearly 12% of a dealer’s revenue comes from servicing the car. That sales person also knows that word of mouth is the best calling card available. They want to build a relationship, and add us and our contacts in their “friends list.” And when they sell that car, they will walk us through the service area to show us how they treat our new purchase.

So seeing the need for sales training, I’ve decided to expand that area. I am setting my 20+ years of selling and sales training experience into motion. As the architect of two sales development (training) programs at Fortune 500 companies I’m going to put this knowledge to work for all of us in this movement, so we can help our members beyond their greatest imaginations.

Using this blog, our social media outlets on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other applications, and our other outlets, like seminars, webinars, emails, and the like, I am going to challenge us to conversations on relationship building, on selling methodologies, and on solving member’s financial issues with products and services that help them achieve exceptional value.

My personal challenge begins today, to help people master the intangibles and motivations that invisibly and inevitably shape every transaction, whether that is just getting to know someone, or know where they are in life, or helping them achieve the financial freedom we all deserve.

The lines are open! The challenge has been made, and I look forward to delivering to you sales relationship literacy 201, no prerequisites required.

By Richard Grady, VP Research, Cornerstone Credit Union League