From the Right Relationships to Projects and Revenue

Buyers are open to meetings with sellers who bring preparation and relevance. 

The study. The RAIN Group Center for Sales Research surveyed 488 buyers, representing $4.2 billion in purchases across more than 25 industries, and 489 sellers across 26 industries.

What it found. Eighty-two percent of buyers had accepted a meeting with a seller who reached out proactively in the past 12 months. Buyers responded to personalized outreach that addressed their specific problems and business results. Sellers ranked speaking at conferences among their most effective ways to generate meetings, alongside calls to existing and past clients and researched, one-to-one emails.

What it means for your initiative. Buyers make time for sellers who bring relevance, and conferences are a proven place to meet them. Shaw pairs digital outreach with in-person connection: digital sends the message out, and the in-person relationship brings trust back.

The study. Gartner surveyed 632 B2B buyers in August and September 2024 about how they research and make purchases.

What it found. Buyers lean on digital channels for general information and learning, and they seek out sellers for contextual questions, such as whether a product fits their company. Seventy-three percent said they actively avoid suppliers whose outreach is irrelevant to them. Gartner’s analysts recommend shifting outreach from volume to relevance, targeting buyers by their actual needs, and positioning sellers as a sounding board who offers guidance suited to each stage of the buying process.

Worth knowing. The figures come from Gartner’s summary release of its research, and they are best read as directional findings.

What it means for your initiative. The 30-day immersion, the curated target lists, and the preparation before each conversation give Shaw the context to be that sounding board, with a clear picture of what matters to each owner.

Three studies from three different fields look at what changes when people share a room. 

The study. Mahdi Roghanizad, then a PhD student, and his supervisor Vanessa Bohns studied how people respond to requests. In a peer-reviewed experiment published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2017, 45 participants each asked 10 strangers to complete a short survey, using the same script. Half made the request in person and half made it by email.

What it found. In-person requests were about 34 times more successful: roughly 8 of every 10 strangers agreed in person, compared with an average of 0.3 of 10 by email. Before asking, participants had predicted that about 5 of 10 would say yes in both conditions, so the in-person group exceeded its expectations and the email group received far less than it expected. Roghanizad attributes the gap to the trust and empathy that in-person contact builds.

What it means for your initiative. The same request gains force when a person makes it face to face. Shaw’s introductions happen in the room, where responses are strongest.

The study. Joy Hirsch and colleagues Nan Zhao, Xian Zhang, J. Adam Noah, and Mark Tiede at Yale recorded the brain activity of two people at the same time as they talked. In one condition, partners sat face to face. In the other, they talked through a Zoom-style video setup. The work appeared in Imaging Neuroscience in October 2023.

What it found. Neural signaling was dramatically stronger in person. Activity rose with the amount of eye contact and with pupil size, which the researchers read as greater arousal in both people. In-person conversations also showed more coordinated activity between the two brains, which the authors interpret as a fuller exchange of social cues. Hirsch described video as an impoverished channel for social communication compared with the real thing.

Worth knowing. This was a controlled laboratory study that compared live conversation with a video-call setup.

What it means for your initiative. The brain’s social circuitry responds most fully to a live face. A first meeting in person builds familiarity, attention, and rapport faster, and Shaw’s five-meeting pathway is built around that advantage.

The study. Researchers including Carlo Ratti and Paolo Santi of the MIT Senseable City Lab analyzed the structure of a de-identified email network of 2,834 MIT researchers, faculty, and postdocs over 18 months beginning in December 2019. They studied the pattern of who was connected to whom, and left the content of the emails aside.

What it found. When work moved remote in March 2020, new “weak ties,” the casual connections that carry ideas between groups, fell by 38%, an estimated loss of more than 5,100 new ties over the following 18 months. Ties between physically distant labs held up better than ties between nearby groups, which points to shared space as a driver. Weak ties partially recovered after researchers returned to campus in July 2021, and the team’s model predicted a full return would restore them completely.

Worth knowing. The study measured connections through email patterns, so it shows the effect of proximity on connections indirectly.

What it means for your initiative. Referral networks grow where people share space. Conferences, events, and in-market meetings are where Shaw opens the connections that become your referral sources and strategic partners.

Trust grows through openness over time, and the person offering it matters. 

The study. Juliana Schroeder, Jane Risen, Francesca Gino, and Michael Norton ran a series of negotiation experiments, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2018. They simulated car, job-offer, and real estate negotiations, and in several of them participants shook hands before negotiating.

What it found. Pairs who shook hands reached greater agreement, scored more points, lied less, talked more after the negotiation, and leaned closer together. In a real estate negotiation, where one side could withhold information, handshaking sellers were more likely to share it, and participants reported feeling less comfortable lying after a handshake. A further experiment showed that the meaning of the gesture matters: people who skipped the handshake and explained they were sick still reached cooperative settlements. The researchers concluded that a handshake works by signaling cooperative intent.

What it means for your initiative. A simple gesture sets a cooperative tone, and the signal comes from the person offering it. Shaw builds each relationship from the first handshake, so that the conversations that follow begin with openness.

The study. Jonna Koponen and Saara Julkunen of the University of Eastern Finland interviewed 47 senior B2B sales professionals in Scandinavia, each with more than 10 years of experience and customer relationships lasting more than five years. The interviews took place in rounds between 2007 and 2018, and the study appeared in the European Journal of Marketing in 2022.

What it found. Long-term B2B relationships moved through three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners, and collaborative and personal partners. As relationships deepened, disclosure moved from general business topics toward strategic business matters and personal life, and the rewards shifted from purely business benefits toward trust, socializing, and social bonding. Reaching the third phase took reciprocal self-disclosure and mutual understanding. Sellers described social bonding, mutual respect, honesty, and camaraderie as the benefits of those relationships.

Worth knowing. This is an interview study of experienced sales professionals, so it shows how practitioners experience relationship development.

What it means for your initiative. Time spent together, in person, is how that openness develops. Shaw builds the personal foundation early and discerns fit on both sides, which saves time and money for everyone involved.

 Relationships built on trust create loyalty that supports growth and repeat business. 

The study. Robert Palmatier, Lisa Scheer, and Jan-Benedict Steenkamp collected data from 362 buyer–salesperson pairs, drawing on the buyer, the salesperson, and the sales manager in each pair. A longitudinal follow-up tested whether the effects lasted. The study appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research in 2007.

What it found. The researchers introduced the idea of salesperson-owned loyalty, which is the customer’s loyalty to the individual who serves them. It was the factor that directly drove sales growth and selling effectiveness, and the effect on sales growth persisted over time. 

Loyalty to the salesperson and loyalty to the selling firm both increased customers’ willingness to pay a premium. The same loyalty carries a risk for the selling firm if the salesperson leaves, so the authors encourage firms to build both kinds. Relationship-enhancing activities and the value customers receive build both, and their effect is strongest when the firm behaves consistently across its people.

What it means for your initiative. Britney builds the personal relationship, which is the loyalty that drives growth. Shaw then brings your leadership into the relationship, so loyalty extends to your company as well as the person who built it. The study examined the salesperson relationship; bringing in leadership is our own application of its findings.