"Business is all about relationships... How well you build them determines how well they build your business."

Brad Sugars

This quote encapsulates a fundamental truth about the nature of business: relationships are at the heart of success.

In our time together, we will dive deeper into why building strong relationships is crucial and how you can enhance them.

Why do you believe relationships matter?

Strong meaningful relationships foster trust. When your clients or your future clients trust you, they will more likely continue to do business with you and recommend you to others.

These types of relationships enhances your network. A robust network can lead to new opportunities, collaborations, and insights that can catapult your business forward.

Deep relationships with your clients lead to loyalty. This creates sales longevity and sustainability.

The depth and richness of your conversations will determine the relational strength you have with your clients.

It's these types of conversations that will determine your long-term sales success.

Is there depth to your client relationships? Would you even know?

Relational Depth is a term created by Dave Mearns, the co-author of the book, Working at Relational Depth in Counselling and Psychotherapy,

“A state of profound contact and engagement between two people in which each person is fully real with the other, and able to understand and value the others experiences at a high level.”

Whether you're a senior level executive, sales leader, sales manager or even a salesperson, in front of a mirror, I encourage you to ask yourself the following two questions...

1. Are the connections between me and my clients REALLY real?

2. Are my clients able to fully understand the values and experiences between us to create relational betterment?

Gotcha thinking a bit, haven't I?

Deep, meaningful and rich conversations require intent and meaning. They are not superficial and shallow.

I believe that shallow and lack of enriching client relationships have a long-term impact on your sales prosperity.

To get you thinking, Oxford Dictionary defines superficial as, “existing or occurring at or on the surface; not thorough, deep, or complete; lacking depth of character or understanding.”

Let's stop for just a moment... Now, start thinking about your client relationships and the interactions you're having...

• Do you have a thorough understanding of their business goals, desires, aspirations and what needs to be done to create business betterment?

• Do you understand the one important thing they're working on right now within their business?

If you're struggling to honestly answer these, then what do all of you speak about when engaging with your clients?

Though small chit-chatty conversations are necessary, however; this is where many in sales lull themselves into a false sense of a meaningful relationship.

Sales reps get caught in the friend zone; sales professionals get caught in the business zone.

Forward thinking and future proofing conversations require a deeper investment of time, energy and commitment to relational betterment.

I believe a relationship is shallow when it only exists on the surface and absent of any meaningful emotional connection.

A Selling from the Heart professional aligns the head and the heart inside their client relationships.

I believe if you're not aligned by any shared values with your clients, you will soon find yourself treading in relationally shallow waters. You may find levels of success there, but let's refer to this as transactional swimming. I fully believe this type of swimming will require a life guard, if you no what I mean.

We can all agree on the significance and long-term benefits of healthy, meaningful client relationships... My question to all of you... Why do so many struggle to form rich, meaningful and deep client relationships?

For some, they can’t be bothered to learn how, but for a vast majority, they've never been coached in how to build real client relationships.

“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.”

Tony Robbins

WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING WITH YOUR CLIENTS?

Your clients are much savvier then in years past. They're interconnected like never before.

Their expectations are much higher. They notice if you're paying attention to them or not.

They have instantaneous and much louder methods of voicing their displeasure as well as the support they're getting from you.

Greatness is a conscious choice and a discipline when it comes to building client relationships.

One of the most effective sales growth strategies is building really intentional, transformative and deep client relationships.

These types of relationships significantly enhance revenue and profit. These types of relationships are built on trust. These types of relationships drive referrals, and these types of relationships form connection.

Building genuine client relationships takes time, mutual care, and interest.

Creating authentic relationships with your clients becomes one of the key ingredients to your sustainable business success. It requires a commitment to understanding their needs, fostering trust, and demonstrating genuine care.

If you aspire to have an ever-flowing sales funnel, then hold yourself accountable to build an ever-flowing client relationship funnel.

If you want amazing client relationships, then you must do something about it.

If your desire is to transform your client relationships, then you must build meaningful and powerful emotional connections.

Here are three ways to transform your sales growth:

AUTHENTICALLY ENGAGE

"Details matter. They create depth, and depth creates authenticity."

Neil Blumenthal

The more you know about your clients, the more you grow with your clients.

Your client relationships must be built upon trust and trust is based upon authenticity. Without these two things, there's no relational depth, plain and simple.

Your clients B.S. meters are finely tuned in and extremely sensitive. They can spot insincerity a mile away.

The authentic YOU must be a genuine reflection of who you REALLY are. You must believe it. You must own it. You must know what it stands for. You must know your strengths and your weaknesses. You must bring congruency to the forefront.

When it comes to authenticity in a relationship, I love what Newport Institute has to say,

"Authentic relationships begin when we reveal our true self to another person. That means being genuine and vulnerable in our communication and interactions. Moreover, we are congruent—in other words, what we feel inside is consistent with how we act and what we say to others."

It's all about the personal, meaningful, and transparent connection you make. If you're 'blowing so-called smoke' up your client's backsides what's the likelihood, they will trust you or even help you to grow your business?

Authenticity serves as a powerful relational magnet, enhancing trust, relatability, and emotional connections in personal and professional contexts.

You cannot leave authenticity at the front doorstep of your house.

STOP BEGGING

Amplifying your relationships is about establishing trust and creating meaningful value.

Engage with your clients, communicate with them, add value to their business, solve their problems, create opportunity for them, educate them and inform them, but why do so many insist and dropping the sales hammer on them all the time?

There is a healthy, natural and more fluid way to grow your business as opposed to dropping lopsided sales bombs on your clients all the time.

What concerns me about salespeople today, whether you believe me or not, is their lack of people and relational building skills.

There is very little emphasis being place on these two areas. I'm here to inform all of you that these two areas and your lack of development around them, directly impact your ability to grow revenue and profit.

Stop begging, bugging and badgering your clients to buy from you at month end, quarter end or year end, when you've done very little to enhance the relational experience.

Why would your clients help to grow your business when you haven't helped them grow theirs?

Mundane sales experiences and relationships die a slow and very painful death.

INTENTIONALLY LISTEN

Successful sales professionals simply listen.

There's so much you can learn when you just listen.

Monumental listening is the key to becoming a powerful sales professional inside the relationship economy.

Developing excellent listening skills separates the good from the great.

When you intentionally listen to your clients you soon uncover their challenges, their vision, their business goals, even personally related things; all this to do one thing - strengthen the relationship and grow your business.

Here are two ways to become intentional with your listening:

1. Be present and minimize distractions: During conversations (face-to-face or virtual), eliminate distractions (like phones, emails, or multiple tabs open on your computer) to fully focus on your clients. This shows respect and commitment to the moment.

2. Ask open-ended questions that encourage dialogue: Use questions that invite elaboration, not yes/no questions. This encourages your clients to share more in-depth insights.

When you struggle to listen, you miss all the critical components to build a meaningful relationship.

The simple act of listening might be the key to growing your business, strengthening your sales pipeline and enhancing the relational growth with your clients.

Listening is the new prospecting.

TRANSFORMATION REQUIRES TAKING ACTION

Building, maintaining and transforming client relationships requires discipline.

Are you up for the challenge?

Are you up for doing the work?

Are you committed?

Long-term client relationships must be deep, and they must be built to weather the storms along the way. We all know there will be bumps along the way, however; the more you invest in these relationships the more you collect on these relationships.

Why is taking action essential for transformation?

Taking action builds momentum.

Transformation is rarely instantaneous. Discipline helps maintain consistent efforts over time, which is vital for building meaningful client relationships.

Carl Rogers is noted as one of the founders of humanistic psychology.

This quote absolutely reinforces our time together,

"Relational depth cannot be ‘planned out’ and is not a ‘strategy’, rather, something that occurs between individuals as an organic experience. It occurs moment to moment, within the here and now."

Therefore, true relational depth is not something that can be manufactured or strategically planned. Instead, it's an organic, spontaneous experience that unfolds naturally between you and your clients.

Are you creating safe spaces for your clients to open-up, allowing them to be themselves?

Are you allowing the conversations to flow, taking on an entirely new meaning?

I encourage all of you.. Become present with your clients. Be in the moment with your clients. Set aside your agenda and focus in on their agenda.

I will leave all of you with this...

• Genuinely care about your clients

• Remember your clients

• Connect with your clients

• Celebrate with your clients

• Really listen to your clients

• Learn from your clients

And most of all... Love and give a rip about your clients.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.