Can you imagine the following scenario? Your customer profile consists of people who solely value your products and services, who don’t make decisions based solely on price, and who don’t “try” the competition occasionally. Seems like a dream, doesn’t it? Well, this can be your reality with some hard work, value positioning and building of strong customer relationships. When a salesperson (you) is valued as an asset to the customer, he becomes ingrained within the customer’s organization, making it virtually impossible for others (the competition) to get any business.

So what is the best way to make yourself valuable and build customer relationships? Here are some excerpts from an article from small business sales training web site, SalesprenurEDGE™, providing some insight on how strong customer relationships are formed.

Getting Started – Developing A Foundation

It is important to realize that a solid customer relationship is not developed overnight; it takes time and effort. When establishing a new relationship with a customer, it is important to pay attention to the little details that make a big difference. As a rule of thumb, everything you do should make it easy for the customer to do business with you. Here are some examples:

1. Respect the customer’s time, show up on time and stay within the time allotted for your meeting / discussion.

2. Learn as much as you can about the customer and start thinking of ways you can help make their job easier. When working with a customer, in the back of your mind think of ways to make the customer a “hero” within his or her organization.

The reason that building a foundation is important is in the customer’s mind there is some level of risk involved in making a purchase decision. This is not a personal reflection on you, but a natural part of the buying process. If there is nothing that removes some of the risk from the mind of the customer, he will not make a purchase. Simply do the right thing by your customer and treat him the same way you would like to be treated if you were in his shoes. Over time, you will reap the rewards of building a strong foundation.

Strengthening The Customer Relationship

The strength of a customer relationship occurs during and after a sale has been made, as well as when leading up to future purchase decisions. In fact, the strength of a customer relationship can be measured by how many times you have cycled through the sales process with a customer. The key to making this an ongoing process is, again, being able to continually add value to the customer. Be aware that a common pitfall here is that you may think you are adding value, but if your customer doesn’t perceive value, then you have not provided value. Here are some are some examples of what you can do provide value and strengthen your relationship with the customer.

1. Understand the customer’s needs.

2. Admit mistakes.

3. Pick up the phone.

In every training event there is always one person that says customers only care about price. If that has been your experience, then chances are you are not taking the time to prove alternate value. Your customers will look beyond price if you offer them the proper information. Price is part of the value equation, not the entire equation. Ask yourself why people would want to buy from you. Pretend that price is not a viable answer. You will come up with several correct answers and these are the value statements that you should provide to your customers.

Final Thoughts:

Some of the best sales professionals and business owners in the world never compete on price because they have strong relationships. When you continue to provide value to the customer, value that they realize and verbalize, he will consider you an asset to his organization and continue to do business with you. This type of customer will also lead you to great sources for referrals and testimonials.

For the full article and a complete list of tips on how to build strong customer relationships visit http://www.salespreneuredge.com.