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I know what you are thinking. This article is going to be about clothing or style, right? WRONG! Just because I used that acronym does not always mean that is what it means. In this case the acronym S.W.A.G. means: Sell, Win, Adapt, and Grow and the end goal is building relationships with the customers. You have to know when you are dealing with a potential client or partner that you must earn trust and respect when you are selling them a service. This leads to smooth onboarding, more clients, and more revenue. Now I know what you are thinking “more revenue is good!’ Yes, it’s good, but with more revenue comes more responsibility.(Yes, that was sort of a line from Spiderman.) Responsibility means more trust from your partner or client. So, let’s get this article started.
Building Relationships – Sell:
When dealing with any kind of sales job you must sell the product. I am not just talking about actually selling the product for money. I mean you actually have to get the client to be convinced on what they are buying. The client wants to walk away with that warm fuzzy feeling that they are buying the right product, from the right person, from the right company, for the right reason, and it is your job as the sales
rep to assure they walk away feeling all of those reasons. This not only makes the client feel good, but it will make you feel good as well. Knowing that you worked hard to make the client feel comfortable and confident to purchase your product is one of the greatest feelings you could have as a sales rep. I have been in sales for 13 years, and I still believe that this feels better than a paycheck. Now I know some of you are going to say, “ Yeah right! You know you do this for the money.” Well, let me ask you this, does anyone like to do anything for free these days? NO! Nobody does anything for free these days. So yeah, you like the paycheck, but in the same breath I think being able to provide a top notch service and making your clients happy is also a gratifying feeling. Don’t you think? Take the time to really stop and think why you do what you do. If you do not have a passion for it then should you really be doing it?
Building Relationships – Win:
You have sold the client on the service; they are happy and you are happy. So you have WON them. You have not just won the sale, but you have won the client and their trust. This is a crucial part in the sales
process. In my humble opinion, to earn a client’s trust is better than winning the sale, because you have officially done something that no other sales rep before you has been able to do with them. They now feel a sense of pride and admiration for you simply for doing a good job. You want every client to walk away feeling this way. Why? Well, it means you have done your job and you have not only done it well, but you have done it with a certain respect and pride that will make any CEO, manager, or owner happy. This is a feeling you should wake up and strive for everyday you go to your job.Take pride in what you do because you never know who or what size client will come through your company’s door. I can tell you from my personal experience that I have dealt with professional athletes, famous musicians, and well-respected lawyers. With every single one of them, I made sure they walked out knowing they got the best service they could get. When they came back they made sure they only wanted to see me and nobody else. Not that the other sales reps were bad, it’s just that I made an impression on them that made them feel comfortable and at ease with me.
Building Relationships – Adapt:
Now we have sold the client on how awesome our product is and we won the deal, it is time to adapt with the client. When we adapt with a client we are adapting to their needs with the product we have sold them on. So here is the scenario: you have pitched a client on how Pay-Per-Click services will help drive more business to their website. They are sold and you win the deal. Now you have to mesh your style of doing things and their style of doing things in order to have that mutual bond and trust with each other. The client has to know that you and your company have a certain way of doing things, and you have certain protocols in place to ensure that the client gets the best service from you and the company. Now the client who also has certain protocols informs you of how they do things within their company and how the want to operate.,This is the part where you and your company, and the client and their company come together and mesh with one another to adapt to each other’s needs and protocols. This is a very important step in any part of business because this establishes boundaries and barriers between what you and your company are willing to do and what you are not willing to do, and what the client is willing and not willing to do. This eliminates any kind of confusion or miscommunication.
Building Relationships – Grow:
By now you have established your boundaries with your client and expectations with their company and yours; now it is time to grow with them. When you are dealing with anything business-related you always want to grow it, and you should want your client to grow as well. You should take growing with your clients very seriously. When they get bigger, you get bigger also. That is good for everybody. Take the time to focus on what it will take to grow with them and capitalize on that. For example, if you are doing a Pay-Per-Click campaign for them and they are spending $2,000 on ad spend and you are getting them more conversions than they thought they were going to get they are going to want to up that spend with you. Why? Well, look at what you did with $2,000 of their ad spend. They are happy and excited, and want to get more. It is the age old saying of, “ if you hand me a dollar and I hand you back $2, you are going to hand me every dollar you find.” In theory that is what you are doing for the client when you are driving them traffic to their site and/or physical location. The goal is to better the clients needs and business, and also better your relationship with them.
I hope you have enjoyed this article. I apologize that this was not about style, but maybe I will write about that in the next article. Remember the S.W.A.G. only works when you put the time and effort needed to make it possible. Thank you again, and have a wonderful day.
