How to Grow Sales Through Relationship Marketing

Guest: Phil, founder of the networking group Strategic Business Connect, and a specialist in relationship marketing.

What drives sales
Opportunities on top of the funnel drive sales. Without a systematic approach to put qualified opportunities into the funnel, it dries up. Referrals, networking, and contacts are the cheapest and most effective source of leads, since they’re generated for free and convert the quickest — yet most businesses have no strategy to leverage them.

A personal story
In 2004, when I left the direct sales business, my success depended on getting referrals — I had to build enough rapport in an hour for the prospect to give me names. I used the same principle at Unilever in Dubai as a key account manager in food service, and it opened multi-million dollar accounts. Yet I still see it as a blind spot when I train organizations today.

Two of the most important business skills
The ability to sell, and the ability to build and leverage relationships — internally for promotions and efficiency, and externally to get clients. Yet real strategic networking and business development are among the last things taught in business school.

Networking done wrong: “cold calling face to face”
Most people aren’t actually networking — they’re doing cold calling face to face, jumping straight into a pitch the moment they meet someone. If both people at a networking event are selling, nobody’s listening, and doing that 20-30 times in one event explains why people hate it.

Change the dynamic
Instead of pitching immediately, ask what the other person does and show genuine interest — find out their pains and challenges, and look for ways to help them. This changes the entire dynamic: you build respect and liking even before any business happens.

The law of liking
You build liking by finding something in common, helping someone achieve a goal, and by listening — asking follow-up questions demonstrates you actually care. When two people find commonality, they feel safe, and when people feel safe, they’re more inclined to buy, help, and refer.

Networking is farming, not a slot machine
It’s not about instant results — it takes going back to the same event multiple times to build the relationship. Most sales statistics suggest 8 to 12 touch points before someone buys, and the same applies to networking — even sales-driven conversion happens rarely on the first meeting.

Why burn the bridge?
Everyone has hundreds or thousands of contacts on their phone. If you build enough trust with someone, it’s only a matter of time before they want to reciprocate that value — through referrals into their own network, which is another business funnel entirely.

Why people give up on networking
People don’t go back to the same event two or three times because they didn’t get immediate results — not realizing even sales conversion takes 8 to 12 touches. A sales manager who doesn’t understand this may pull a rep off networking because they see no immediate ROI.

Checking in on your team’s networking
Ask your reps: who are the people you’re meeting, what are their goals, what do they want to achieve? If they can’t answer, it means they haven’t been networking properly and need help connecting better.

Select the right network
Go to a network where your target audience actually is — a general 800-person business event might net you one accountant if you’re selling to accountants, versus a room full of accountants specifically. It’s a quality game, not a numbers game.

The follow-up
95% of people don’t follow up. When you do, it should build the relationship, not immediately push your offerings — don’t send a sales email the moment after a great personal conversation. Following up appropriately maintains your personal and business brand.

Networks vs. networking groups vs. personal networks
These are all different things, and until you realize what they are, you don’t know how to use or build any one of them properly — you need a personal network and a professional network, built with the right mindset.

The sponge metaphor
Pour water on a dry sponge and nothing shows at first — you drip, drip, drip and nothing comes out. But keep dripping, and eventually the sponge saturates and starts releasing water. Networking works the same way: you may have a delay at the start, but if you keep filling “sponge after sponge” (relationship after relationship), eventually the water — money and clients — starts gushing, and with continual networking, new sponges keep opening as older ones release.

Activity vs. productivity
Sales teams often confuse the two — being busy serving existing customers or doing admin isn’t the same as putting new “sponges” in place for future growth.

Advice for sales managers
Make sure your staff learn how to network effectively — you can’t teach what you haven’t learned yourself, and handing out business cards or doing an elevator pitch isn’t networking. If you won’t train your people to do it, you’ll need to spend money generating leads another way. There are only two ways to get clients: spend money, or get them for free through relationships.

You can track networking too
Managers can track where reps went, how many conversations, who they followed up with — but the manager needs to understand what good networking looks like first, to track the right leading indicators.

A ten-year cautionary tale
One company has talked to me for nearly ten years about training their sales team on networking, and still hasn’t done it — despite having one or two people generating the best leads through it. One rep tried it independently, brought back two prospects from a single event, but the company didn’t follow up or send them back. If something is working, find ways to do more of it.

Habit-building takes time
Complex behaviors like networking or selling aren’t built in a day — research suggests an average of 66 days. Committing to small, consistent actions (like “hi, how are you” calls to 20 people over ten days) can generate opportunities without even asking for them directly.

Building the roof before it rains
Is it better to prepare before or during a downturn? Obviously before. A good defense is a good offense — even when business is doing well, invest time to build a referral pipeline and help your team generate their own opportunities.

Strategic Business Connect
Phil’s networking group focuses on being strategic about where you network — industry-specific groups so you know your potential clients or referrers are in the room. Sessions limit attendee numbers so everyone gets to speak to everyone, guiding conversations to extrapolate as much value as possible.

Four steps to take action
1. Decide you want to do it, and do it.
2. Shift your mindset — it’s not about selling immediately, it’s about giving, helping, and connecting.
3. Learn how to explain what you do clearly and memorably.
4. Follow up, and keep doing it.

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