NURTURING Grows relationships​

NURTURING: Grows relationships

Ashwini’s announcement that she had landed a mega order from Seneca Eyewear took her sales team by complete surprise. Over months, Seneca had become a joke to tease Ashwini. The team always greeted her with “When’s the Seneca deal coming through?”

Ashwini’s company was an SME that made a range of chemicals, majorly surfactants and solvents that go into cleaning solutions and sprays used on glass surfaces. The company had a small but well paying portfolio of B2B Customers. So, when Ashwini prospected Seneca with over 3000 eyewear outlets pan India, the team had expected a big, quick breakthrough.

For months nothing happened. But Ashwini’s diligent weekly calls on Seneca continued. She even liaised with her own company’s R&D to provide answers to questions that had been dogging Seneca on the most surface-friendly spectacle cleaning solution. Then suddenly, Covid happened. Ashwini’s company pivoted in response. Ashwini’s company quickly moved into opening up additional production lines for making hand sanitizers.

The story, from there, in Ashwini’s words –

“I was pleasantly surprised to get a call last week from Seneca. I had been meeting them week after week because I thought my calls were adding value to them.

I learnt this from my grandpa who retired from a great sales career and went on to cultivate a lush, blooming garden. He used to advise “Prepare the soil, plant something, water regularly, provide manure, ensure adequate sunlight. Do this without any expectation. Then one day, without your asking, the plants will gift you their flowers and fruits. That’s how you grow your relationships”

It sounded philosophical then, I hardly understood it, until Seneca happened. They said they may want a branded spectacle cleaning solution from us after some time. But they now urgently want hands-free, foot-operated sanitizer dispensers for all their 3000 plus outlets with our brand of sanitizers. Refills will have to go out every fortnight. That’s the story of my mega order”

Good salespeople have warm Customer relationships. The great ones nurture them for life. That’s because they grow the relationships with an unwavering focus on how the Customer can be helped. They refuse to get anxious about immediate results in terms of deals closed and orders won. Such nurturing, done with a genuine passion to be helpful, transforms Customers into raving fans for life!