“Relationship selling” is one of the newest buzzwords in e-commerce that revolves around the idea of building meaningful customer relationships and closing more sales. Once a brand starts focusing on one-on-one interactions with the buyers, it ends up closing more sales.
Under this method, the sales, marketing, and customer success teams prioritize the brand’s connection with its customers. They tailor interactions with each individual and give personalized recommendations that match a buyer’s unique personality and need. The brands that practice relationship selling retain more customers, improve their bottom line and get you ahead of competitors.
So how can you make the most of relationship selling?
Let’s take a look at three proven relationship selling approaches that can help you close more sales than your competitors and increase your profits over time.
Show that You Care
Relationship selling starts by showing prospects and customers that the brand cares about them as individuals. It’s about being helpful and spending time with them. When your team engages in relationship selling, they build a rapport with each customer through active listening. This enables them to understand each customer’s requirements and tailor their pitch to form a long-term relationship.
Caring about each individual buyer shows that you are eager to provide a customer with a solution. However, to turn this into reality, you have to make an effort to interact with buyers on an individualized basis. Don’t over-emphasize a product’s features or price. And definitely don’t obsess over closing one sale and quickly moving on to the next! Instead, understand a customer’s personality, learn about their challenges and objectives, and build familiarity through one-on-one communications. Guide them throughout their purchase journey and show them how your product can help them meet their specific goals. These are all great ways to show that the brand cares about them and wants to build a mutually-beneficial relationship with them.
Personalize Engagement at every Touchpoint
As per one 2020 survey, 70% of B2B customers demand in-depth personalization, making it a critical facet of a customer-brand relationship. Personalization is equally imperative for sales and marketing as a majority of shoppers find it “appealing” and amongst them, 80% are more likely to buy from companies that offer personalized experiences. Furthermore, 91% of prospects are more likely to interact with brands that remember them and provide personalized offers and recommendations.
By delivering personalized experiences, you can resonate better with each customer. Further, when these experiences are personalized at each touchpoint throughout their brand journey, they are more willing to engage with your company and pay more attention to your offerings and communication. All of this can lead to higher sales revenues and increased brand loyalty.
There are many ways to deliver personalized customer experiences. Send email messages with content that dynamically displays in real-time based on each subscriber’s demographics and previous brand interactions. You can also provide tailored product recommendations and specific offers based on their purchase and browsing history. Any of these channels are great ways to provide value consistently. Thus, you can start nurturing the relationship right from the start and create a niche for your brand in their hearts and minds.
Empathize with their Priorities and Objections
Cart abandonment is a big challenge for B2C and D2C e-commerce companies. According to one study, 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned – that’s your 70 potential prospects who leave without buying! However, you can combat cart abandonment and recover lost sales – through relationship selling.
But first, you need to identify buyer worries and priorities. Ask questions to understand what’s stopping them from buying. Is it the price, a feature, the shipping time, or after-sales service? Once they answer, you can send cart abandonment and re-engagement emails with attractive copy and individualized recommendations to prove you are paying attention to them and empathize with their worries and objections.
You can also show what concessions you are willing to make to overcome their objections. Can you offer a discount code? A free upgrade? An accessory at a lower price? All of these are good ways to show customers that you are on their side. These actions prove that you want to find a win-win solution, and they will then feel compelled to come back to your store and complete their abandoned sale. In the long term, these relationship-building actions will impact how they see and trust your brand.
Conclusion
Modern buyers don’t trust brands that are only interested in their wallets. They trust brands that focus on them as individuals and care about their success. Over time, relationship selling can have a huge impact on your brand’s reputation, bottom line, and competitive posture. That’s why you must embrace this sales technique sooner rather than later.
To build long-term customer relationships, start by listening to their emotional side and adopting minor changes to your communication. Use “you” language so they know that your focus is on them. Reach out to them regularly and keep providing value through useful content like newsletters, event invitations (e.g., webinars), and feedback requests. Your team should also leverage social selling to earn customers’ trust. Also, make sure that they follow through on their commitments and seek ways to continually exceed customer expectations.
If you want to know more about relationship selling and how your team can make it work for your e-commerce brand, contact Ergode. We will work together to build meaningful customer relationships that increase their loyalty and bring in more revenue for your business.
