Building relationships...I'm not a fan of this theory.
Most sales managers tell young sales people, "we just need to build a relationship with them".
Wtf does that even mean?
Whenever I've asked that question no one seems to have a coherent answer.
Plus, I'm pretty sure your prospect doesn't want a relationship with someone who's trying to sell them.
The issue is not only does no one seem to be able to explain what this means consistently, it gets confused with people liking the sales person.
So the sales person enters every interaction wanting to be liked rather than doing a good job.
You don't need to be liked to sell. You need to be trusted.
You earn trust by asking tough questions and challenging the prospect on their bs.
You earn trust by behaving different.
Not by being that sales guy who panders to them, is overly nice, too enthusiastic, comes across as desperate etc.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't hurt to be liked in sales but its not essential.
"People buy from people they like" is another weird quotation that's just plain wrong.
So morale of the post here is stop trying to be liked. Aim to just get to the truth if whether your prospect actually needs what you fix.
The relationship comes once they become a customer, not before.
Before, the prospect just needs to trust that you/your company can solve their problem.