I am here at my family’s farm in upstate New York and I’m hanging out in one of my favorite places as a child. I am inside the barn. When we were kids the barn was our favorite place to gather to play, to hide and sometimes to work.

It Takes Time to Build Structures that Stand the Test of Time

Back in the day, a 100 years ago, the craftsmanship in barns like this one was so impressive. These beams that are supporting this entire three-story structure are hand carved. The craftsmen who built it took the time to sit down and carve trees to get the exact shape to build a strong foundation.

What makes this barn even more impressive, is that there are very few nails and screws. Most of it is held together with wooden dowels. I am sure that there are easier ways to build a barn, whether it is prefabricated or using drills and screws and nail guns.

But the reason that barns were built like this was because they wanted them to stand the test of time. They didn’t want the barn to go up and then decompose or need to be rebuilt in ten or twenty years down the road. So, in order to have a lasting structure they had to take the time to do it right and at a very high level of quality.

Slow Down to Build Strong Customer Relationships

The same thing is true for customer relationships. They need to be strong.

Sometimes this means that early in the sales process, early in the relationship, you need to slow down and put the time into developing the relationship, building rapport and learning about your customers needs and values and their real goals before you rush to present pricing.

You don’t want to be putting up a structure that can just be torn down in a few weeks or a few months because you didn’t do the hard work up front.

Take a moment to think about your customer relationships. How are you building those relationships to stand the test of time?

Learn more from Jessica Stokes about How to Balance Sales Style with Sales Substance on Sales Gravy University | Sales Training Reinvented  – https://learn.salesgravy.com