Is your relationship with your buyer top-down, bottom-up, or side by side?

Your answer to this question has profound implications on the way you treat the purchaser of your product or service.

There are countless examples of top-down relationships: boss to employee, doctor to patient, sergeant to soldier, parent to child. A top-down relationship is not inherently bad, but in sales it can be. Sales professionals can come across condescending, prideful, even patronizing to the buyer. In some cases, you are the expert in the room and might have to tell the buyer what they should do, but in most cases buyers don't want to be talked down to.

Bottom up relationships usually imply that one person is in service to the other. In the world of fairy tales, it is the relationship between Aladdin and the Genie. "Your wish is my command". I have written in previous posts about the value of selling like a servant and this can be a very effective posture to take towards your buyer, as long as it doesn't require you to be subservient.

But of these three - top-down, bottom-up, side by side - I am drawn to viewing the relationship of the buyer and seller as side by side. Effective salespeople come along side their buyers, sometimes serving them, sometimes leading them, sometimes providing them information that will help them find the right path forward. I want to recommend you connect with Tony Maturani who is doing some good work in the world at Ernest Packaging Solutions. He often times posts about his adventures in cold calling with other sales reps and one picture he shared from his adventures stuck with me. It was a picture of one of his salespeople side by side with their buyer.

How we position ourselves with our buyers matters. It will determine the way they feel about their interactions with us. I am interested in what it has looked like for you to position yourself side by side with your buyer?