Relationships are King

In the frantic and noisy world of commerce these days, the ability of companies to cut through by differentiating via relationships and solution selling is even more challenging.

Relationships create environments where meaningful exchanges of support and products serve to develop organisations’ bottom lines in addition to peoples’ needs for community and fulfillment.

It was Zig Ziglar who said, “People buy off people they like, know and trust”, relationships must work both ways to ensure mutual benefit or it becomes like an unbalanced see saw with something breaking or someone falling off.

The three keys to relationships are:

1. Regard – what are others trying to achieve and empathy for appreciating their perspective.
2. Respect – why others are working towards their goals and how can you help.
3. Results – understanding personal and professional goals of others.

The alignment of values between two organisations leads to significantly more success with the right balance of Regard, Respect and Results.

Many years ago, the company I worked for found that our ideal and most profitable customers were similar in size, scale and ownership structure to ours – this combined with (often unsaid) understanding of values led to positive and substantial results for all.

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au