Don`t think sales – think relationships

Every single day, I meet people who want to sell more. About as often, I think: “Sell more? Or build relationships?” Far too many people in the textile industry are preoccupied with selling. Many would stand to earn much more if they focused less on transactions and more on relationships.

Transactions happen through bank terminals and are stored in spreadsheets and tables on computers. There, the numbers don’t tell us anything about relationships.

– Relationships exist between people who want to help each other.

Thomas Vethe

Relationships are made between people. Personality, chemistry, and common interests, each play their part, and the single most important factor is trust. Trust is a sense, the sense of being able to rely – to rely on the other party’s skill, honesty, and good faith. Relationships exist between people who want to help each other.

At Texcon, we just completed the Texcon Event 2023. This is a meeting place where the goal is to build strong relationships between all participants. The unique thing about the event is that the participants aren’t just members of the Texcon procurement cooperation, but also suppliers. 46 suppliers participated in the Texcon Event 2023. Unfortunately, we didn’t have room for more. The suppliers weren’t there to sell, but to build relationships. To meet the people at Texcon, to talk about themselves, but also to listen and get to know the members’ challenges, ambitions, and workday better. And they participated in everything, including the party.

– Everything is built on trust and free will.

Thomas Vethe

Texcon showed considerable growth in terms of both revenue and profitability in 2022. I fully believe that this first and foremost is because Texcon is based on voluntary participation. As the leader of this community, I can’t command members to do anything. I can’t order them to buy goods or cooperate better. Everything is built on trust and free will. My job is to help stake out a strategy. From there, it’s all about ensuring that members hit as few roadblocks as possible on their way to meet their goals. People who know each other well work better together. When you combine this with the fact that the vast majority of those who run Texcon shops have long known that customer relationships are a goldmine for companies, then this becomes a formula for success. Customers will shop more when they feel that we are in shops to help them, and they’ll come back, too.

PS! Congratulations to Gabba! At the Texcon Event 2023, our members voted Gabba as the supplier of the year. Gabba was given this award for providing shops with extremely good customer service. That’s the long and short of it. Suppliers like them do well at Texcon. Suppliers that have good relationships with our members, and who push to make our shops even better.