B2B sales strategies and trends

Real Sales Come from Real Relationships

Real Sales isn’t just about creating opportunity for one business. It’s about building relationships that transform potential on both sides — and creating partnerships that can touch the lives of others as well. 

Real Sales Come From Real Relationships

Real sales come from real relationships, and in our new story, Kelly Gray and Jahnell Pereira show what magic those relationships can create. Kelly and Jahnell’s partnership enables their businesses, the robotics company Sphero and the science education retailer Sparkfun Electronics, to do more together than they could apart. And when what you’re doing is shaping young people’s lives, that difference really matters.

The Secret of a Productive Partnership

What’s the secret of productive partnership like this? As Vice President of Sales at Sphero, Kelly knows the answer is simple. “It’s about putting the buyer first,” she says. “Making sure you understand what they need to be successful is what’s going to make the partnership successful.” This commitment to creating value doesn’t just result in a one-off sale. When two businesses find a way to enhance what one another can achieve, the relationship builds – and so do the benefits. As Jahnell, the Chief Business Development Officer for Sparkfun Electronics puts it, “Kelly makes doing business easy. We could really build a relationship where we could do more together than we could alone.”

The Value of Real Sales

When LinkedIn first launched our #RealSales campaign, we were determined to debunk the outdated misconceptions and media representations that still swirl around salespeople. Kelly and Jahnell’s story shows, once again, why that mission matters. Stereotypes around sales aren’t just lazy. They obscure the valuable work that real sales people do every day, building real relationships that make a real and lasting difference.

You can learn more about our #RealSales campaign here, and you’ll find images of real sales people like Kelly in the image library that we’re creating to help dispel negative stereotypes. When you subscribe to our LinkedIn Sales Blog, you’ll find more insight and stories about the difference real sales relationships are making.

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