As a salesperson, you want customers to like you and value what your business brings to their bottom line. Creating a career path, generating commissions, and receiving accolades all result from closing deals. You cannot close deals without understanding the importance of building customer relationships, which are accomplished by hitting two points: the moment the customer discovers they like you and the moment they decide confidently that your product/service meets their needs. 

These two moments are related, but they are not the same. And as a salesperson, you may only have full control of one of these moments to win over your customer — the likability moment. This doesn’t mean the product is not important. Your story can help an otherwise uninterested client envision themselves using, benefiting from, or enjoying your product. The product might (also) be the best solution for your customer’s needs. It is not entirely within your power to influence the product, regardless of whether you built it or not.

But guess what? You built a strong customer relationship; and people buy things from people they like.

Building customer relationships involves several components, depending on what formula you use.  Here is ours: Likability = What You Say (12%)  + Your Body Language (87%) + How You Seem (1%).  

What You Say Matters 

This refers not only to the information you communicate, but also the verbal interest you show in the customer to building a stronger relationship. Expressing sincere interest about the customer is key for likability, as it is the most natural way to discover whether the product or service you’re selling is well suited for their needs. Keep in mind that asking questions is not the only way to get to know your customer. A more natural approach is to elicit information from your customer. More information provides more opportunity to explain or link the product or service to your customer’s needs. Elicitation is gathering information without directly asking for it. For example, if a customer says, “I had a bad experience using your competitor’s software”, your response could be open-ended like, “Tell me what happened.” However, if you’ve already asked questions and want a more natural conversational flow, your response could also be, “we’ve received that feedback from quite a few customers (expression of mutual interest)”. Another relatable response might be, “many customers I’ve spoken to lost at least a week of productivity after using this software (bracketing)”. In addition, another option is to stay silent and allow the customer to take a breath while you are actively listening. Each of these responses will prompt the customer to share more information, in most cases along the same lines as what they would share if you asked, “What happened?”. The difference is elicitation makes the interaction more of a discussion than an interview.  It also enables you to convey empathy with your tone AND your words.  Other ways of building customer relationships verbally include complimenting the customer, saying thank you, and being honest and genuine. Future articles will explore these active likability actions.

What You Don’t Say Also Matters

Research shows between 70 and 93 percent of communication is non-verbal. Examples of non-verbal acts you can show to increase your likability include smiling, nodding, making eye contact, displaying open body language, and mirroring the physical stance of your customer.  What you don’t do nonverbally also has a huge impact on likability. For example, don’t slouch, wear clothes that make you look disheveled or unprofessional, or drag your feet when you walk. 

Perception Affects Customer Relationships 

The way you come across, or your perception, is just as important when building customer relationships. This is a tougher category to quantify as it is less tangible to describe/produce, but is reflective of a quote I once read from Maya Angelou: “People will often forget what you said, and possibly what you have done. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

So how do you directly determine the best way to build a strong relationship with your customer? Outside the verbal and nonverbal techniques described above? The answer — awareness. When people meet you, they will formulate an opinion based on your verbal and nonverbal acts. Make sure you are aware of this happening and be mindful enough to correct your course if what you appear to be isn’t to your liking.

The Importance of Building Customer Relationships: Final Thoughts

In the moment, likability may seem like a formula, but in retrospect, likability is an impression and pertinent to building a relationship with your customer. It is a memory, and serves as a reflection of what one or multiple interactions means over time. If you succeed at customer likability, the customer will not only like you, but will remember your impact. This means you will have an open door to grow trust and rapport, not only for your own sales objectives, but for the company’s ability to act in an informed and responsive way as the relationship grows.
Great customer relationships don’t happen overnight, so it’s essential to cultivate and nurture them every step of the way. If you’re looking for more insight on how to build  strong customer relationships, don’t hesitate to contact our team and schedule your demo today!