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The 6 I’s Successful Relationship Cultivation | Introduce & Interact

May 25th, 2010
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Step 2, or the second “I” of the The 6 I’s Successful Relationship Cultivation is to “Introduce & Interact”. This step is done after you’ve identified the potential and qualified persons to contact, your leads. This step is meant to serve as the initial step of communicating with potential clients and current customers to introduce yourself, share what you do, and to create awareness.

There are a few things you can do for this “I”; they include:

  1. The initial email or call.
  2. Educating your potential customers:
    - Send your contacts articles, books, brochures, etc., but a third part around an area of service that you offer.
  3. Offer them an invitation to a seminar, free training session, or send them something of value from your blog, website, newsletter, eBook, etc., to help get your foot in the door and to help position you and what you have to offer as the authoritative source.
  4. Ask questions to encourage the conversation, but the most important part here is to listen.
  5. Build rapport.

During this stage, take off your selling hat and really take the time to get a feel for who you are working with. Interact with these potential clients and find a common ground that you can work on and use later. Also be sure to note their hot buttons and sore spots to give you a better idea of what they do and do not want.

The next “I” is Interests & Needs (Listen). This step will go into detail how you can help to identify your potential clients needs to provide them with the best solution.

Author: Ashley Categories: Business Development, Sales Tags: , , ,

The 6 I’s Successful Relationship Cultivation | Your Current Customers

May 21st, 2010
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While it is important to your company to cultivate relationships with new customers, it is also important to cultivate relations with your current customers. Doing so successfully is a tough skill to master. The results are well worth gaining that skill, however, and it can be done with a few key tactics that will help you to understand your customer and their needs, as well as how to adapt your offered solution to the needs you and they identify. Those tactics can be found in the 6 “I”s of Relationship Cultivation from Richard Wilson’s The Rainmaker Handbook, an essential guide on sales and sales management.

The 6 “I”s of Relationship Cultivation are as follows:

  1. Identify & Qualify
  2. Introduce & Interact
  3. Interest & Needs (Listen)
  4. Inform & Deepen Understanding
  5. Involve & Acknowledge
  6. Invest & Recognize

The steps above help to improve the two core tasks mentioned above (understanding customer needs and adapting your offered solution). They will also serve as a “relationship cultivation roadmap” to train your sales teams, or as a reminder to your senior executives.

Relationships are the backbone of your company, and your customers serve as its lifeline. Without them, your company would cease to exist, whomever your customers may be. Keeping your customers coming back, and encouraging new ones to come to you, requires a deep understanding of where your customers are, what they see their needs as, and how you can provide an applicable and beneficial solution.

The following posts will cover the above six steps in detail, so be sure to check back!

Source: Wilson, Richard. The Rainmaker Handbook. 2007.

Author: Ashley Categories: Business Development, Sales Tags: , , , ,