"To do things, first be a good person," "To sell your product, first sell yourself," "Emotional intelligence outweighs IQ." Countless marketing gurus and sales geniuses have been loudly preaching these sales principles and philosophies. This highlights a simple issue: sales targets are people, and people are emotional beings. If you ignore human emotions, sales success is nearly impossible. How to handle and maintain relationships with customers is a challenge every growing enterprise must face. Interacting with people is full of variables because people differ greatly in personality. Maintaining good relationships with customers of different temperaments, genders, and dispositions is a profound and unfathomable subject. Books on interpersonal relationships are numerous and in high demand. It can be said that in today's society, if you can handle various relationships harmoniously, you will be invincible to a certain extent, even capable of commanding wind and rain. The knowledge here is too deep, and mastering principles alone is not enough. Setting aside those deep aspects, I have summarized some basic methods and principles for maintaining customer relationships for your reference. Courtesy Never Hurts Courtesy can mean politeness or gifts, both falling under the category of "li." For customers, basic etiquette and communication are essential, such as sending greetings during holidays via phone or text, and offering condolences on birthdays or special occasions. This is the minimum. If you can do these things, it doesn't guarantee excellent customer relations, but it ensures customers can't find fault with you—you haven't been discourteous. In short, this can basically maintain customer relations and ensure you have no mistakes. Gifts are also like this: they don't cost much but show thoughtful effort. As the saying goes, "a feather sent from a thousand miles away" is just to warm someone's heart. Especially for non-cooperating customers, if you can set aside utilitarianism and persistently send greetings and gifts, it's even more commendable. When they have needs, they will naturally think of you first. Mr. Peng and his wife from 360-degree Media are well-known in the industry for this. Every holiday, people receive their greetings and souvenirs, whether auspicious ornaments or zongzi and tea. They don't seek returns, yet they never miss an occasion, and everyone in the industry feels their warmth. It must be said that good customer relations are a magic weapon for their success. From the boss to employees, the company treats people with warmth and humanity, reciprocating courtesy, and maintaining harmonious customer relations, which enables long-term cooperation with old customers. Be Good at Doing Favors "Respect me a foot, I respect you ten feet" is a common Chinese interpersonal principle. No one wants to owe favors, and if they do, they must repay them. If you are good at doing favors, making customers owe you, their only way to repay is to sell more goods and pay back promptly. There are many small brands with little fame and average quality, yet some distributors stick with them because the brand owners are good at doing favors, making it hard for distributors to give up. Many professional managers start businesses with nothing, but they have loyal old customers who support them with money and effort, helping them build their business. This is also the merit of doing favors. If customers always feel they owe you and constantly think about how to repay you, why worry about your brand not being valued and sales being poor? There is great skill in doing favors. On one hand, you need to speak well, saying things customers like to hear and always considering their interests. You don't have to deliberately flatter customers, but at least they shouldn't dislike you, which is the basis for cooperation. As the saying goes, "A kind word warms three winters, but a harsh word chills to the bone." Saying something customers like is the cheapest investment in maintaining customer relations, so why not do it well? On the other hand, let customers know the efforts and support you or your company have made for them. Everyone likes to be valued and treated specially. For example, if the material allocation is 20%, and you fight for 25% for the customer, would they still complain about you? Ordinary people would tell customers our allocation is 25%, but smart salespeople say, "We fought for 25% for you." With the same allocation ratio, customers will definitely be grateful to the latter. Of course, don't be too contrived; naturalness is best, otherwise it backfires. Be True to Your Word Easy promises lead to broken faith. Customers hate it most when you say one thing and do another, being fooled. Many salespeople, to please customers and achieve goals, make many promises but later refuse to admit or execute them, leading to countless fallouts. Therefore, don't easily promise anything. This way, customers will trust you more. They may seem to have a poor relationship with you or even complain, but deep down they will approve because cooperating with you gives them peace of mind. I once had a colleague who was a sales expert. When asked how he gained customer trust, he said he basically refused customers. Because customer requests usually violate company policies and principles, refusing them shows the seriousness of company policy. On the other hand, he actively found ways to solve problems for customers, thereby gaining their goodwill and trust and facilitating sales. Always Consider the Customer's Perspective This principle applies to all aspects of sales and life. If you want others to accept your views and products, you must follow this principle. Because everyone wants to be valued and respected, and everyone wants others to notice them and consider their concerns, this principle is especially important. If you grasp this principle well, your plans can be implemented smoothly; otherwise, customers won't adopt them, and no matter how good your ideas and viewpoints are, they won't work. Currently, many companies and salespeople create excellent products and marketing plans, but they often fail to execute. A big reason is that these enterprises and salespeople are too self-centered and aggressive. Without considering customers' feelings, forcing them to implement your plans makes many customers feel disrespected, resentful, and uncooperative, leading to the failure of corporate plans. Even if they execute under pressure, the results will be greatly diminished. Thus, customer relations naturally become tense. If not resolved well, customers may become estranged or even part ways. Help Customers Grow This is the hardest to achieve and is the focus and destination of all principles for maintaining customer relations. Customers need to develop and grow. If cooperation with you can help them achieve this, then your customer relations can be managed effortlessly. Conversely, if you can't bring growth to customers, no matter how well you do the above principles, it won't have much practical significance for your sales in the short term. In the sales process, we also encounter brands that are equally unremarkable, yet customers are willing to cooperate with them. Upon investigation, the reason is that the brand's salespeople have rich experience and often bring new concepts and ideas to customers, and the company provides targeted guidance on problems and confusions in customer development. Although they don't give much material things to customers, with the support of the company and salespeople, customers' businesses grow bigger and bigger. Salespeople become honored guests, and the company's brand is promoted as a main product, naturally leading to good customer relations. There are many such examples. Customers inevitably encounter various problems in their operations—sales, management, inventory, finance, etc.—endlessly. Even if your brand is not well-known and you don't give customers much material benefit, if you can help them develop, such customer relations are undoubtedly very stable, even without deliberate maintenance. This requires our marketing personnel to pay attention to learning and accumulating experience in their work, keeping up with concepts and ideas, frequently guiding customers, and helping them grow. If you can do this, customer relations will naturally be fine. This is the most important point. If you can't achieve this, no matter how well you do the above, it won't mean much, and customer relations will be fragile. -END- Content Selection Reply with the following keywords to search and read related articles: Sales Supervisor, Second-Tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Stagnation, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Trade Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing, Market Visit Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Channel Conflict, KA, Terminal Merchandising, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, New Salespeople, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Investment Attraction, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Appraisal, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Pressure Selling, Holidays, Distributor Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Work Report, Work Report.