Business Partner vs Vendor? Finding the balance...

Are you a business partner to your clients...or are you simply another one of their vendors or suppliers?  It's a tricky question...especially for those who have long time, large clients, where there is some level of a personal relationship that has been built up over the years.  The interesting thing is, in order to be really successful in direct sales, you need to be BOTH a partner AND a vendor.

The salespeople who are "relationship builders" out there are currently squirming while reading this.  It is completely true that the relationship is still important.  However, in this day and age of real time sales data and up to the minute ROI projections, the relationship can only get so much accomplished anymore.

The "hunter/killers" out there who sell on the features and benefits of their product and then turn clients over to account managers are also squirming.  Yes...they deliver the numbers, but without the personal interactions, there is no opportunity to capitalize on the all important #RonR (return on relationships).

The trick is having a good enough consultative relationship whereby you know all of the important stuff, while remaining detached enough to compartmentalize all of it into what's best for the business goal.  It's a fine line to walk, and the lines are often blurry on both sides of the equation.  It's especially difficult in instances where one client makes up the bulk of someone's whole book of business.  In that situation, the scales often get out of balance and tipped in entirely the wrong direction.

A few tips on how to strike this balance:

1.  Be memorable for the right reasons (be prompt, professional, courteous, relevant, informed, insightful, and...don't overdo it on any of these).

2.  Be personable, but not overly so.  This makes it easier to keep the necessary levels of detachment so that you can do the next thing on this list, which is...

3.  Embrace the horror that your clients are not always right.  If your client is about to do something which is absolutely not going to work, you have to call them out on it (yes...this even goes for those of us who have one huge client that we are always afraid of making angry...in fact...it ESPECIALLY goes for those of us who have one large client that we are afraid of making angry).

4.  Always bring some sort of value that is relatively measurable to every business interaction with your clients, no matter how small.

If you can focus on doing these 4 things consistently in all your direct selling relationships, you will have an excellent chance of striking the right balance between being a partner AND a vendor...and you will really be able to capitalize on your #RonR (return on relationships).