Responding to your outreach
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:48 am
Cultivating a Reciprocity Mindset
Have you ever heard the philosophical question that asks, “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer is easy. 30 years ago!
In other words, if you want to enjoy all the benefits a tree provides, you need time to nurture and cultivate it.
Leveraging the powering reciprocity in sales is no different.
You might really want to make a quick quarter-end sale. Or quickly line up a 5-star customer reference call to close that big deal. But doing something “nice” for your customer right before you make an ask isn’t the way to do it. That means it’s best to think about reciprocity as a mindset instead of an action. In other words, look for every opportunity to add value to your customers.
Like deposits in the bank, the more of them you make over time, the more value will flow your way later. After all, to drive your sales forward you need customers to engage early and often throughout the sales process. This includes:
Granting access to key decision-makers
Sharing their true feelings and objections
Feeling comfortable enough to give you hard news
Disclosing important information about their business and problems.
In sales, reciprocity can be a powerful psychological finland telegram data force when it comes to engaging and converting buyers. The key is picking the right behaviors, engaging in them early and often, and ensuring the customer understands there are no strings attached.Last week I was speaking to a sales leader at a multi-billion dollar software company who shared that one of his team’s biggest challenges is getting stuck in a sea-of-sameness and struggling to differentiate themselves from their competition.
“We have incredible customers, world-class technology, and an amazing, experienced team, but our customers still see us as a commodity! In the end, we have to give deep discounts to drag deals over the finish line.”
Unfortunately, he’s not alone in experiencing this problem which gets worse every year for three reasons:
Have you ever heard the philosophical question that asks, “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer is easy. 30 years ago!
In other words, if you want to enjoy all the benefits a tree provides, you need time to nurture and cultivate it.
Leveraging the powering reciprocity in sales is no different.
You might really want to make a quick quarter-end sale. Or quickly line up a 5-star customer reference call to close that big deal. But doing something “nice” for your customer right before you make an ask isn’t the way to do it. That means it’s best to think about reciprocity as a mindset instead of an action. In other words, look for every opportunity to add value to your customers.
Like deposits in the bank, the more of them you make over time, the more value will flow your way later. After all, to drive your sales forward you need customers to engage early and often throughout the sales process. This includes:
Granting access to key decision-makers
Sharing their true feelings and objections
Feeling comfortable enough to give you hard news
Disclosing important information about their business and problems.
In sales, reciprocity can be a powerful psychological finland telegram data force when it comes to engaging and converting buyers. The key is picking the right behaviors, engaging in them early and often, and ensuring the customer understands there are no strings attached.Last week I was speaking to a sales leader at a multi-billion dollar software company who shared that one of his team’s biggest challenges is getting stuck in a sea-of-sameness and struggling to differentiate themselves from their competition.
“We have incredible customers, world-class technology, and an amazing, experienced team, but our customers still see us as a commodity! In the end, we have to give deep discounts to drag deals over the finish line.”
Unfortunately, he’s not alone in experiencing this problem which gets worse every year for three reasons: