Emotional Intelligence in Sales Part 5
In our last post we discussed Social Awareness. How did things go with your Social Awareness practice? Remember, connect with people. Connect with them the moment you see them. Let them know you remember them. Let them know you care about them by actively listening. Make it authentic.
In this second to last installment of our series, we will discuss Relationship Management. Not to be confused with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, Relationship Management is the Emotional Intelligence skill that utilizes your Self Awareness, Self Management, and Social Awareness. It’s how friends are won. How coworkers become team. How a one time customer becomes repeat business. Let’s dive in.
A note on CRM tools: These tools can be helpful when remembering important details about customers and to help streamline digital communication via text or email. Sending digital communication that is personal and pertinent is key. Further, while they can enhance the customer experience, they cannot replace the in person interactions you have with your customers. That is where connections are made and customers become life long customers and maybe even friends!
Relationship Management is something that is done overtime to build and maintain relationships with consistent and frequent interactions. It is manifested when we value connections with others.
Outside of work, people become aware of our tendencies. If they like them, we become friends. If they tolerate them, we become acquaintances. If they dislike them, we land somewhere between outcast and frenemy. In more formal situations, like sales, a customer is in many ways a friend. You have built trust with the customer through frequent interactions, honest and upfront discussions, sharing, and a genuine interest in helping and educating them about your inventory. Now if you forget to pick up a friend from the airport, they might laugh with you over drinks. If you forget to order your customer’s band in time for the wedding, well, it’s unlikely they’ll shop with you again.
I’ll give you an example of Relationship Management in sales. A customer walks into the store to pick up their watch. It was there for a cleaning and battery replacement.
Example 1: A sales associate says to a customer, “Hey it’s so nice to see you again Roger. Your watch is ready and the battery is on us. I remember when you first came into this store after your wife picked it out for your anniversary. You couldn’t believe she’d get something so expensive but decided to allow it because it was so thoughtful.” Roger replies, “Wow, thank you!” That was several years ago. Since the sales associate has a relationship with this customer they replied, “Yeah, that was 5 years ago, so that means your 20th anniversary is coming up. Let me show you a matching women’s timepiece. She would love it!”
Example 2: Without practicing Relationship Management a sales associate might say, “Hey your watch is ready. That will be $40.” The customer pays, but is confused because they thought since they bought the watch there, battery replacements were on the house.” The sales associate tells them to have a nice day and the customer leaves without developing any rapport with that staff.
So what went wrong here? The customer experience was not personalized and the staff failed to connect on a personal level with the customer, by using their name or remembering any important details. The customer’s trust was degraded because they were told batteries were free, but the sales associate failed to honor that commitment to the customer.
The Wishfluence Connection: What went right in the first example was simple. The salesperson remembered something critical. Perhaps they looked up the buyer’s history in their mobile store app when they sent a notification to the customer that their watch was ready. Scrolling through the previous purchases helped them remember that it was they who sold the watch and what about it was meaningful. Sure, the husband almost never comes into the store, it’s usually his wife. You need to surround yourself with every advantage possible to be Emotionally Intelligent during your relationship management. Try doing this for each customer this week.
Here are some ways to practice your Relationship Management:
“Be Open and Stay Curious.” Reaching from my mental health training, this is called use of self. Sometimes it is beneficial to share about ourselves in order to connect and build rapport. This might be mutual friends, common hobbies, or just that we love our dogs Ada and Gryff and have two young boys. When we share about ourselves it demonstrates that the relationship is not one sided and there is a level of trust. On the flip side, stay curious. Ask the customer questions about themselves, get to know them beyond what they like inside of the case. When they leave, record important details in their customer profile to reference before appointments.
In our next installment, we will review the previous topics. In addition we’ll go over what you should look for as best practices for implementing the four skills of Emotional Intelligence. Regardless of what you choose, you will be well informed on the ins and outs of the decisions ahead of you.
