Posted on: Monday, September 16, 2002

60 SECONDS ON BUSINESS
Sales personnel are 'relationship officers'

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

What makes a customer desirable? Is it smiling, nodding up and down, leaning toward the other person, making direct eye contact and agreeable noises like "ummm" and "ohhh!"? Or is there more to it than that? There's a quality of the "perfect customer" that involves something I call "agreeableness." It's a new word because it's more than being cooperative when there's only plastic, and you wanted paper. It's more about showing a willingness to go along, to take recommendations on faith. What would create that kind of customer?

The answer is trust. Relationships build trust. Trust builds "agreeableness" which is what we want from the perfect customer. You could make a fortune if you could develop "Trust Me" cologne. One whiff and they'll do whatever you want. What makes people want to say "yes" to pretty much anything the salesperson suggests?

In the absence of that cologne, can you think of people you trust? Really trust? Put their faces in your mind and try to grasp what about them makes you trust them. Are they family? Are they longtime friends? If not, what is it they say or do that makes you trust them? Are there signs of trust? They're the same signs you see every day a hundred times. But they're different for every person. That's why successful sales people become "relationship officers" for the company.

Reach Dr. Drake Beil at drake@60secondsonbusiness.