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How healthy is your relational capital? (Score yourself)

Are the gyrations in the stock market, the state of the U.S. economy and the housing market wild enough for you? Do you want to just close your eyes and hope it all goes away?  Our capital markets are the backbone of our economy and when they falter it seems like "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride".

Today, I’d like to ask you to reflect on the state of your Relational capital?  Relational capital is the stockpile of all your connections and relationships with your friends, colleagues, customers and prospects.  While we often take for granted the value of these assets, they are the very fuel that runs our personal economy.

In the selling environment most agree that people buy from people they trust. If the end goal is to become a trusted advisor where do we start?

Recently, Ed Wallace (The Relational Capital Group) published a book titled Fares to Friends . The book has many good ideas about how to create relational capital.  I was intrigued by what they had to say. 

The book describes three relationship levels. They are:

Acquaintance – “most business relationships begin in this category and require investment to advance beyond a transactional relationship.”

Professional Peer – “Business colleagues value you professionally and view you as a peer irrespective of your title or formal role.”

Respected Advisor – “Your advice is sought on issues outside the original business reason that brought you together.”

This is helpful but what I also needed was a way to score the relational captal that exists between buyers and sellers. 

What’s your opinion?

As part of the strategic planning and budgeting process I am often asked to help evaluate the strength of my client’s Strategic Account Plans.  Usually included in these documents is a section where the account executive is asked to comment on the “relationship” with the buyer.  This isn't effective for two reasons.  First, these comments are based solely on the opinion of the sales person.  Some opinions are better then others but, since they are all different it’s hard to discern what’s relevant.  Second, they don’t lead to a concrete set of measurable actions. 

Most importantly, I wanted to define a set of criteria that was based on the behavior of the buyer toward the sales person and not something based on opinion.  By scoring the status of the relationship and comparing that to where we want to be we can identify the gap.  Then, based on this analysis we can define specific tactical goals and behaviors for the sales organization that will purposefully move them toward their goal.  (Here is the link to the chart.)

For each cell in the chart, ask yourself, “Is this the way the buyer behaves toward me?" Most people score themselves higher than the reality of the situation.  As you see, the chart provides an auditable means to confirm your status.

So, how healthy is your relational capital?

If you have any questions, feedback or comments please let me know.

JimLewis@PrincetonSalesPartners.com
www.PrincetonSalesPartners.com

Alternate links to the Chart:
As a .JPG file
As a PDF file

Copyright © 2008 Princeton Sales Partners LLC