Create a sales network in an ethical and inspiring way. What does it mean?

This is not about B2B and not even B2C, but rather about P2P (people to people). Because we are selling to people, first of all.

Let’s image these two similar but so different situations.

Sitation A

You are a company owner. You receive a reminder that in half an hour you have a meeting with a new potential supplier. Oh my gosh! You don’t remember well who this person exactly is. You are overwhelmed with things to do and can’t see this meeting is already finished.

The potential supplier arrives and starts his long speech about his “wonderful products”. He shows all the samples, lists all the pluses and advantages, underlines how happy his clients are about this product. Of course he does not miss the opportunity to speak about very interesting prices and special conditions. You, in the meantime, eye the clock. When you realize that the meeting lasts too long, you tell him that you need time to evaluate everything and that you will let him now. The potential supplier satisfied with his performance leaves you lots of paper catalogues and leaves.

In the following days he obviously tries to give you a call several times a day. But every time your assistant tries to direct his call to you, you ask her to tell that you are out of office, you are in meeting, you are abroad, etc. It repeats for days, even for weeks. At this stage, some suppliers will give up, others will push even more. But pushing harder they achieve exactly the opposite and probably will be soon “blacklisted”.

...... And those paper catalogues will be put on the shelf “not important stuff”, without having been opened.

Many find themselves in this situation, don’t they?

Let’s move to the second story.

Situation B

You are a company owner. You receive a reminder that in half an hour you have a meeting with a new potential supplier. Oh my gosh! You don’t remember well who this person exactly is. You are overwhelmed with things to do and can’t see this meeting is already finished.

The potential supplier arrives and shows you a small selection of items he prepared for you analyzing your current offer. You are slightly surprised. The person is prepared and he is speaking about you! nice. The supplier asks some specific questions regarding your existing problems and aspects needed to be improved. These questions lead to the creation of a dialogue. After listening to you, he proposes to have a look at a specific material. He is honest, straightforward and brainstorms with you to find solutions. You don’t even eye the clock as you got involved with the conversation. When the meeting is finished the supplier tells you that there is no sense in leaving all the catalogues. He prefers to prepare a detailed proposal divided in categories you were speaking about before, which you will receive by email on Friday. Furthermore, he will send you also samples by an express courier. You are completely satisfied. You wait for his email and once it arrives, you study the proposal and send him your feedback. If he calls you, you respond personally. The relationship has been created.

Which supplier you want to be?

The first situation describes a typical selling method still used by many people and companies. It’s an old-fashioned sales model based on manipulation - low price, incredible offer, special discounts, unprovable statistics, etc.

If we are speaking about B2C segment, a lot of “manipulated” customers make an unconscious purchase. Many of them say they even didn’t need it, but the offer was too good to miss-out on. Ok, the sale is made, you’ve manipulated the customer. But are you sure he will choose your product again? How many times you can manipulate the same person? One, two times, but then this person will get more information, will find out more alternatives and definitely won’t buy your product again consciously.

If we are speaking about the B2B world, you are just one of the many. Can you imagine how many offers, emails, newsletters a buyer receives, a company owner? Every single offer has for sure the same words: interesting price, incredible offer, extra discount. You are “one of the many” for them, even if you’ve met already. You will be lucky if a buyer just opens your email, otherwise your message will be deleted without opening.

The second situation describes a selling which I call “ethic and respectful”. This type of selling is based on a relationship with the customer. This is not about B2B and not even B2C, but rather about P2P (people to people). Because we are selling to people, first of all.

When you know very well the interests and needs of your customer/client, you can offer him a thing he believes in and a thing he really needs. When this happens, the customer believes in what you do, he buys your product consciously. He is proud about this purchase, he is proud to pay for something that reflects his needs. He feels good having the thing which has been “designed” for his needs and values. He will surely buy your products again, there is little chance that he would be looking for something else. Why would he?

work, work, work.

For this type of selling it's unthinkable to send the same email to everyone.

Of course, if you are doing P2P selling, you need to be always updated, you need to anticipate your customers’ behavior and requests. You need to give them a thing they need before they ask for it. You need to be in stage of constant grow and constant improvement. You need to do more, much more. Because for this type of selling, as you probably already understood, it’s unthinkable to create the illusion of personalization by replacing “Dear customer” with <first name>. You need to do more, much more.

The world needs ethical salespeople, people who are loyal and honest, who know how to create added value for their customers and are constantly working to make things better. Exactly these people are ideal to sell the concepts that change the world.