No matter how great an organization is there are always customer issues. It could be a misunderstanding, personality conflict, a service level issue, or simply customer remorse. Many times all of these at once. As the original relationship builder, the sales professional needs to be able to work with customer issues or as I like to fondly call them, customer heat.
Networking is certainly not new to business relationship building. The need for business relationships has been around as long as business transactions have taken place. The difference is now with social networking I can start relationships in minutes that typically took months or years before… if at all… anywhere in the world. Professionals and companies of all industries have adopted some sort of business networking integration with social media. They use these tools in a variety of ways to promote themselves, ideas and products.
In an effort to market my new services business I have embraced digital marketing in a big way. Selling services using social media venues, websites, blog posts, email campaigns and more I am connecting with tens of thousands regularly. I have made some tremendous progress with these endeavors. I have also come to realize that it still takes a call (or two or three) to make a sale. Why is that?
Business owners, managers, and sales professionals can be blind to a changed market and new competition. In relying on their small group of influence they miss the big picture many times. Ego can also stand in the way. Small successes continue to reinforce small thinking. It’s like the frog standing in the pan of water and stays there as the heat is turned up until boiled alive.