How Bridge Builders and Sellers are Different In Uncategorized
Written by: Sam McBride, Former Chief Sales Officer, RXBAR
According to Google’s dictionary, these are the definitions of sell:
Give or hand over (something) in exchange for money.
Persuade someone of the merits of.
Trick or deceive (someone).
Thus, according to Google, “selling” is at best transactional and at worst deceptive.
At RXBAR, we approach selling in a very different way. Our sales team members are Bridge Builders for our organization. If we are good at it, these bridges connect us to the industry and open up opportunities that we’d never see otherwise.
Our bridges take us to new geographic markets, they place us in new stores, they create strong bonds with like-minded brands, they develop resilient vendor relationships, they form our reputation in the market, and they bring information from the market back to our headquarters in Chicago.
Bridges take us out of our comfort zone into new territories; they help push boundaries and expand the organizations reach. A bridge takes time to build, and it must be on solid footing. It’s never transactional, short sighted, or deceptive. A builder understands the whole plan, and the full vision. They measure twice, cut once, and move swiftly to completion.
When our sales team is in the market, they connect RXBAR to the rest of the market by building strong partnerships. We partner with distributors, retailers, brokers, and other brands. We are authentic and have a long-term view of the business and our position in the market.
This is how Google’s dictionary defines a bridge:
- A structure carrying a road, path, railroad, or canal across a river, ravine, road, railroad, or other obstacle.
This is how Google’s dictionary defines a builder:
- A person who constructs something by putting parts or material together over a period of time.
Selling, as we define it at RXBAR, is building the structure that will take us over obstacles. The obstacles change with time. Initially, the obstacle was market proof; the next was scale; then speed. Now it’s expanding existing relationships and building nuanced, customized programs for our partners.
When someone joins our team at RXBAR, we emphasize that no one gets in trouble for missing a sale or making a bad deal. We hire smart, capable people so that missed sales and bad deals are rare. But even when they happen, we don’t worry…as long as they approached the conversation in the right way: with a focus on the long-term relationship.
A great product with a group of bridge builders leads to strong distribution channels, and a sustained long-term advantage. At RXBAR, we will take a bridge builder over a flashy seller everyday.
Check out these bridge builders for yourself! Go to rxbar.com or, simply, just click on the button below!