While loyalty and commitment are still considered to be valuable assets, equally important is diverse experience. It’s thought that by bringing in people from the outside, the organization is kept aware of new and different thought processes that are occurring in the marketplace. It is especially important that sales professionals recognize this trend.

The one person that you have dealt with year after year in the organization to buy your products and services may be soon be gone. If, as a sales professional, you see this trend occurring more frequently, there are a number of things you can do to prepare yourself for success, not only in today’s endeavors but in the future as well.

You have to establish a personal credibility in the account. That means you have to deal with more than just one person in any account. It is advantageous when your products and services are recognized in the account by all levels of the organization. Because your champion may leave and seek employment in another organization, you don’t want to lose the account. If someone new is unfamiliar with the history of your relationship with the account, you’re at risk. This can be minimized simply by getting to know and understand the business of the account at every level in the organization so that the CEO to the purchaser of your product is aware of who you are and what you do and the value you bring to the organization.

By establishing your personal credibility, there is less likelihood that the organization will suddenly change products and services because the person who was championing you and your organization is gone. Job-swapping is also a benefit to the sales professional who does an outstanding job of establishing credibility. When your champion leaves and goes into a new organization, what you hope is that you have made enough contacts in the account so the account will stay with you because they recognize the value you bring to the account. Moreover, you are hopeful that your champion will now bring you into the new account because of the fact that you have established your personal credibility with that person.

How do you establish personal credibility? Well, it’s not rocket science. It’s really very easy. What you have to do is take the time to understand the needs of the account, communicate effectively within the account, get to know people up and down the chain of command, and always approach the account with honesty, integrity, and respond ethically to any situation that may occur regarding your products and services. While it is not rocket science, it does take a high degree of organizational skill and excellent communication skills. You have to be willing to put in the time, effort, and energy to build the relationships in the account. In other words, once you sell your product or service, you cannot disappear. You must make an active effort to stay connected to the account. Do not rely on them to buy your product once it has been sold.

What you have to do is continually resell the client. Your competition will be in there nipping at your heels. From the day you get the business, you must resell the account on the value of the relationship. If you fail to do this, you won’t be able to establish your personal credibility. You will not be known in the account and, if your champion should leave the account, you are now vulnerable.

Job-hopping is a fact of life. In order to be effective in this changed environment, we must recognize the trends in the environment and respond appropriately. There is nothing a sales person can do that is more valuable to the client or their organization than to establish personal credibility within the account. When times are tough, the account will turn to you for solutions and they will give you the benefit of the doubt when things don’t go right. When times are good, you have the ability to continue to build your relationship at all levels of the organization, preparing for the pendulum to swing the other direction; because no matter how good you have it in an account, you are vulnerable if you do not have the personal relationship established when things go wrong. We all know that we live in an imperfect world, and things have a habit of not going right all the time.