Raising the Bar: Everything Is Sales
by W. Blair Meeks
Communication Strategist
Jackson Spalding
Everything is sales. I heard that nugget from an up-and-coming sales star at a company we work with here in Atlanta. It was during a sales training workshop and the salesman was describing an exchange with his son about school. It seems a dispute between his son and a teacher about a paper topic meant the sixth grader was cornered into writing a paper about a boring topic. The salesman’s advice? He told his son to “sell” the teacher on a topic he’d prefer to write about. He told him to try to pique the teacher’s interest and earn her trust and to reinforce that trust by surpassing expectation. Of course, the teacher’s decision about a new topic would largely depend on the relationship she already had with his son.
It is advice we can all learn from. In a sales interaction, you aren’t just buying the product. You are buying into the salesperson and the company itself. And we are all doing it – buying and selling every day in all sorts of interactions from actual product purchases to business strategy decisions and even social interactions. The salesman is right; everything is sales. Which leads to the second nugget from our rising star salesman: relationships are everything in sales.
Just like the teacher’s decision about the paper topic depended largely on what kind of student this sixth grader has been up to this point (troublemaker? slacker? hard worker?), our “purchase” decisions depend on our relationship with the “seller.” This is especially true when dealing with the life-altering events that have forced interaction in our nation’s legal system. Choosing legal representation comes down to relationships. Practicing law is the same. Whether you are building a client base, building rapport with a jury or building trust with a board of executives – it is all about relationships.
At Jackson Spalding we believe that relationship building is a commitment to establishing and investing in relationships that genuinely matter to you. It is the complete opposite of networking. Networking is about meeting people while relationship building is about investing in people. Networking can be superficial whereas relationship building is always sincere.
The key to relationships is communication. In Raising the Bar this month I’m introducing a few key elements that will make those relationships stronger, which can lead to more “sales” and more success.
• Personal details matter. Children? Sports interests? Health issues? Knowing these kinds of details help make deeper connections. Whether it’s with a jury or a potential client, if you take the time to share in those details it can be a strong relationship builder.
• Trust is paramount. Honesty and integrity must be maintained at all times. There is simply no other option if you want to build working relationships that last.
• Thoughtfulness earns extra credit. At Jackson Spalding we say, “Do the unexpected.” That means sending handwritten thank you notes in an age of email. It means remembering birthdays or milestones for family members. It means tickets or attendance at important events. Of course, I’m not suggesting sending gifts to jurors, but in building client relationships it can mean a lot.
• Respect must flow both ways. There may be some clients where this item is a challenge. I submit it will be tough to do your best work unless there is respect in some way for the client. And it is certainly a challenge to do your best and continue a relationship with someone who does not respect you.
Concentrate on those four things and it will lead to more relationships, more “sales” and more success. Our rising star salesman’s sixth grader found it to be true. He sold his teacher on his new topic and earned a B+ on the paper. Which is why a proud father shared this lesson in sales, relationship building and communication.