Builds Relationships

The principles of personal selling as only described are transaction oriented-their goal is to help salespeople close a particular sale with a customer. But in various cases, the company is not looking foreasy a sale: It has targeted a main customer that it would like to succeed and keep. The company would like to show that it has the capabilities to serve the customer over the long haul in a mutually profitable relationship.

Mostly companies currently are moving away from transaction marketing, with its emphasis on making a sale. Instead of, they are practicing relationship marketing, which emphasizes keep up profitable long-term relationships with customers by making superior customer value and satisfaction. They are realizing that while operating in maturing markets and facing stiffer competition, it costs very much more to wrest new customers from competitors than to keep existing customers.

Today's customers are large and frequently global. They prefer suppliers who can sell and deliver a coordinated set of products and services to various locations. They favour suppliers who can rapidly solve problems that arise in their different parts of world or nation, and who may work closely with customer teams to improve processes and products. For these customers, the sale is just the beginning of the relationship.

Inopportunely, some of the companies are not set up for these developments. They frequently sell their products through separate sales forces, each working freely to close sales. Their technical people may not be eager to lend time to educate a customer. Their design, manufacturing and engineering people can have the attitude that "it's our job to make good products and the salesperson's to sell them to customers." Though, other companies are identifying that winning and keeping accounts needs more than creating good products and directing the sales force to close lots of sales. It needs a carefully coordinated whole-company attempt to create value-laden, satisfying relationships with significant customers.

Relationship marketing is depends on the premise that significant accounts need focused and on-going attention. Studies have shown that the greatest salespeople are those who are highly inspired and good closers, but more than this, they are customer difficulty solvers and relationship builders. Good salespeople working along key customers do more than call while they think a customer may be ready to place an order. They also learn about the account and understand its problems. They frequently call or visit, work with the customer to help solve the customer's problems and improve its business, and take interest in customers as people.