The best salespeople aren't "selling" their clients at all. The most successful sales reps know that their clients have a need, although the customer may not even recognize exactly what that is. They simply know they have a gap or a problem that needs to be solved. It may be a lack of inventory, not carrying the most popular items, or perhaps carrying the wrong types of liquor, beer, or wine for their location.
While there are many good points to relationship selling, it fails to focus primarily on facts. BevAlc managers can benefit from shifting the way their sales reps approach clients from a relationship-based selling approach to something based on need and backed by data. This blog post will discuss how using a fact-based selling approach can lead to consistent, predictable, repeatable sales results for BevAlc teams and ultimately builds trusted relationships with clients.
Relationship Selling vs. Fact-Based Selling
Your teams have always depended on relationships for their sales success. The reps have spent months or even years cultivating an environment of trust, respect, and loyalty. It worked exceptionally well for a long time. However, the business landscape is changing, and relationships aren't the only factor influencing purchasing decisions anymore.
That doesn't mean that relationships aren't necessary. Instead, relationships now evolve from providing solutions that produce results. As more purchasing functions are centralized, data is key to the sales function. Let's look at some of the primary differences between the two approaches.
Benefits of Relationship Selling
If you want to understand relationship selling, think of your friendships. Have you ever wanted to spend the day working in your yard, binging Netflix, or doing all the household chores you neglected during the week only to have your best friend call and convince you that they can't possibly attend their work picnic/blind date/family event without reinforcements? You feel obligated due to your close relationship and history together. It isn't what you need, but their urgent plea, convincing argument, and your loyalty that win out and seal the deal for your friend.
In relationship selling, the scenarios are different, but the results are similar:
- Frequency of visits and goodwill drive sales, not consultative expertise.
- Data, if used, supports moving specific products or volumes rather than illustrating the customer's current situation or potential sales.
- The sales rep's needs outweigh the client's, making the process one-sided.
Benefits of Fact-Based Selling
Customers may think that what they need is based on what they've always done. They have a starting inventory, they've sold some of it, and now they need it replenished. They may not give much thought to what changes could improve their sales or why some product doesn't move as quickly as it should.
A consultative or fact-based technique focuses on what builds value for the client. It uses data and technology to illustrate how changes in product or placement can make a difference. The fact-based rep takes the time to understand the customer's pain points and business goals and gives insight into the demographics and trends for the area to provide possibilities and potential strategies for their clients. They have deep expertise in their products, the BevAlc industry, and their clients' businesses and leverage it to create solutions for their customers.
Fact-based selling, also called value selling, is focused on the customer:
- It considers the client's current and future needs.
- Data supports all scenarios, from historical and current sales trends to suggested solutions.
- Consultative advice leads to a stronger client/seller relationship.
- It produces consistent, predictable, repeatable results.
Fact-Based Selling Results in Higher Sales and Stronger Customer Relationships
Relationship selling vs. fact-based selling isn't about being impersonal in place of cultivating deep connections with your clients. Instead, it puts the customer front and center. It leverages facts about the business, sales history, and its customers to paint an as-is or current state picture that can be compared to a to-be or future state scenario that better fits the client's business objectives. Results speak for themselves.
Relying on relationships isn't a bad thing, but it shouldn't be used to influence someone's decision to the exclusion of their needs. Instead, the relationship should result from mutually considerate and beneficial interactions. When you put someone else's desires or goals over yours, you create trust.
Fact-based or value-driven selling not only drives higher sales for both the client and the sales rep but also results in a strong, mutually beneficial relationship. When the relationship exists first, the rep depends on loyalty or obligation for their sales. The focus is on preserving the relationship to create value for the sales rep, not on creating value for the client's business. Fact-based selling results in higher sales for both client and sales rep while building a long-term relationship.
