Relationship Based Selling - Merits and demerits

[rahulonline]

In a relationship-based situation, a critical factor is trust. This takes time to build, for particularly for the buyer to accept that the seller will always keep their best interests at heart. If trust is threatened or broken, then the sales person will have to put in a huge effort to rescue the relationship - and even then it may be lost. Is relationship -based selling better than the traditional approach?

 

[YogeshTheDevil]

Relationships are very often the first step in selling or marketing - in fact selling without relationships is very tough for many products. But having relations does not mean withholding useful/legal etc. information and giving customer something unwanted/sub-standard. In fact, relationships are there or not, main motto of selling /marketing should always be to cater to customers' need - that of mutual satisfactions through trade. If it is focused on just one point -selling and getting money, then it may not be successful. Also, relationships could not be a substitute for poor service / bad product / unreasonably high costs....relationships are just a starting point - a slight advantage over the competitor to reach the customer first - it is actual delivery of product/service which matters afterwords.

 

[ramsharma88888]

Yogeshthedevil makes a good point . Relation based selling leads to a long lasting relationship being formed between the buyer and the seller which is beneficial to any business. This also leads to the emergence of trust which s critical . The amount of effort required to maintain this also is more compared to traditional selling . A company must be sure it can live upto its expectations before it indulges in this cause the negative effects of non performance is very drastic.

 

[sachinchourey]

In my opinion its Very Tough to put it in rates. I would say that a sales person should be able to examine both ways. Set up good relations and produce them from one side but also try to broaden the customer base by talking to brand new leads. Of course the chances to sell easier is with people that trust you.That will really ruin the market area.