Traditional relationship building is overrated

Suppose if it were possible to reverse this trend. What if you could create an 80 percent or better success rate when reaching out to new prospects, rather than continue enduring the typical 90 percent or more failure rate? How is this possible, you might ask?

Acquiring the skills necessary to fill your pipeline faster, and with more qualified prospects, is actually easier than one might think. But, it does require sellers to have an appreciation of next-generation selling skills, which is very different than just trying to 'buddy' your way into potential opportunities.

There's no magic, and God knows old-school sales tricks or gimmicks aren't going to work moving forward. Instead, there are a few very important questions individual sellers (and entire sales teams) should be asking themselves, like:

• What are you doing to leverage curiosity to get mindshare from key decision makers in target accounts?
• What questions are you asking to convey credibility?
• How does opening with a generic elevator pitch differentiate you from competitors who are making similar claims?
• What are you doing to secure incremental commitments on the way to the larger sale?

When you're on the receiving end of cold calls at home, I bet you're not excited about giving information to people you don't yet know and trust. So, why should we expect the old-school mentality of trying to "befriend" prospective customers, if that strategy no longer works on you or me? Hmmm…

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• Why relationship-based selling still works
• Relationship Selling Has Changed. Have You?
• A mind-boggling sales statistic

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