The Relationship of Selling
Ashley McBride, John Otness, and Jamie Bennett
BUS 245A- Marjie Johnson
Warner Pacific College
6/11/2015

Building a relationship in sales requires trust, communication and follow through with a product or service. As a society we expect customer service and products that are made for our needs. In any fashion if these two expectations do not align then a relationship is destined to fail. Sales is much more than you think, it requires dedication to the company and product in which you are representing as a salesperson. It requires honesty, ethics, and a common purpose to build a rapport with your customer. Without consumers business would not thrive, therefore, we must take care of the very entity that makes us thrive as a business and that is people. The “Golden Rule of Selling is the customers’ needs comes before your needs. (Futrell, 2013) The relationship of selling a product or service has a strategic approach that allows salespeople to maximize a company’s product and the customer’s needs. We will talk about the stages of selling a service to a customer and how to approach a customer with this additional service; along with the necessary verbiage that will close and continue that relationship. Our example service for this paper will be a car inspection service. So the first major block of foundation in sales and understanding the relationship of selling is product or service knowledge. The integrity of a salesperson relies on the fact that you know what you are selling, how it will help the customers in which you are trying to sell too and why it is even on the market. Why on earth would you sell a product to a customer if you don’t even know what it is or how to use it yourself? Well, unfortunately there are lots of salespeople who don’t know their products and are often not successful in this industry of sales. Key points to maintain is product knowledge is remembering that no matter how well versed you are in a particular product it is easy to get caught up in a monologue of all the great features. (Steady Sales) For example, using our car inspection service as our selling point, we need to understand our product from a “so what” perspective. When we are rattling off the benefits of a service like- with this car inspection you can always guarantee that your check engine light won’t come on, your fluids will always be topped off and we will give you automatic updates on your cars health. When using these benefits you have to understand not every client is going to see what the purpose is. Molding your knowledge of the service you are providing to the client’s needs and remembering it won’t be for everyone. Services, most of the time, are a choice or add on they are not always a necessity. A car inspection can be viewed as a necessity for a wide demographic. Our next step in selling is definitely crucial and that is prospecting. At this point we know we have to understand our customer’s needs, we have to have knowledge of our product and why it matters. Now, we have to know how to market it? Prospecting, just as the word implies, is about searching for new customers. Like product knowledge, this step may seem fairly straight forward but upon closer examination it becomes more complex. The key to prospecting effectively is knowing where to dig and what to look for. It’s also important to distinguish between a lead, a prospect, and a qualified prospect. The most important element in this step is to create a profile of existing customers. (Futrell, 2013) For each market segment do you really know what the ideal customer looks like? These questions should be answered fully in the “Tactics” portion of a marketing plan. In the broadest sense, prospecting is an ongoing process that everyone in the company (particularly the sales force) should be involved in. (Steady Sales). The sales approach is one that is very important and is part of making your first impression with