Customer Relationship Management: Relationship Management in Sales

Any product or service company would initially like to sell their products or services to acquire customers and in the long run, the focus would be to increase the revenues. While the company in the long run would aim at building a strong revenue base, the representative at the Point to Sale is bound by daily, weekly, and monthly sales targets. So where does that take things?

Yes you are right! Though sales and relationship need to go in the same direction it goes in different directions. Many think that relationship would come into effect after a sale is made. A client who books a ticket through a travel agency would love to do so again with them if that transaction was memorable and if a good relationship was maintained. This should not be viewed as a one-time transaction but instead, it ought to be viewed as a seed for a bigger revenue tree. If the ticket booked was for a holiday package, the travel agency can send future offers on holiday packages to this customer.

We often hear many commitments made before a sale which are not met or not even viable in some cases. Even the hard facts should be told openly during the sale, the sales person should drop the fear of not getting a sale if some information is revealed. That is essential for building a solid relationship. Though prospects demand a lot during a sale transaction, they also know that everything they wish is not feasible. Rather, they would prefer to know the real deal than be promised the moon only to be let down later.

Many product or service companies term their Sales Managers as Relationship Managers and this trend is picking up in right from SMEs to Corporate segments. The market today is driven by the customer and the customer has many options to choose from. The winning move for a company would therefore be to ensure that relationships are not sacrificed for sales in the short term; rather the two should be managed such that they resonate to the best effect.

Do let me know your thoughts!

Comments

The blog is good and informative. It provides the base info to develop the relationship with customer. If you Provide more examples/techniques to develop the relationship of customer, It will be useful.

Posted by: Sridharamurthy Srinivasan | February 23, 2010 9:39 PM

Hi Sridhar,

Sure! Thanks for your comments. Will work towards the techniques front and update the same shortly.

Regards,

Sripathy

Posted by: Sripathy | March 2, 2010 5:52 AM

The blog provides nice information regarding customer and the commitments of the company well and good.May be one or two practical examples might have made this article some more interesting.

Posted by: Deepak | March 6, 2010 6:13 PM

Hi Deepak,

Thanks for the inputs I will shortly come out with techniques and illustrations to support the blog on Relationship management in Sales.

Posted by: Sripathy | March 8, 2010 5:30 AM

Hi,

I have few inputs on the techniques front for maintaining better relationship in Sales.

Take our example on our client who booked a ticket through a travel agency, if the agency can take a photograph of the client and give him a photo membership card the client will be excited.

The membership card need not provide greater benefits but just entitle benefits of getting the new offers through mail, be elgible for a yearly lucky draw and so on. This can take the relationship a long way.

If the travel agency has CRM systems then these photos can be uploaded into the client account and the customer can be identified in any of the branches of the travel company.

Let us take a scenario of a client who takes an house loan from a bank, the demographic details collected during the initial loan process can be used to suggest best future offers to the client. Client can be offered a car loan, personal loan and other products based on his preferences stated in the initial application.

What is your thought on these?

Posted by: Sripathy | March 10, 2010 10:33 AM