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Each year at this time I get asked to write my predictions for sales in the coming year. Can there be anything that suggests more that sales is a fashion business than making predictions about what next year will look like? A year is too short of time to predict anything when it comes to sales and selling. But that doesn’t mean you can’t spot the trends that seem to have legs.

Here are my two predictions.

There are two parts to this trend.

First, your dream clients no longer want to be treated like they’re a transaction. We’vechased the bottom for too long. We’ve sold lower prices, lost margin, and in the process, we’ve made it more difficult to get our clients the outcomes they need. Since they’ve treated us like we’re commodities, we’ve treated them like they’re a transaction. And it isn’t working for either of us.

The tide is turning. Or maybe it’s already turned. Your clients no longer want you to treat them like they’re a transaction. Your clients want to be treated like they’re important. They want to buy from someone who cares about them and who will really help them achieve the business outcomes they need.

We humans are relationship-building creatures.

We value intimacy, someone who really knows us and knows what we need. Intimacy doesn’t easily scale.

We value caring, someone who wants to help us get the outcomes we need. Caring doesn’t easily scale.

We value initiative, someone who is proactive and who thinks about how to help us in the future—even when we aren’t thinking about our future. Initiative doesn’t easily scale.

This relationship stuff is personal. It’s deep. It’s important. Relationships are made up of the stuff individual salespeople do and that differentiates them in a crowded space. It’s this stuff that allows them to create a higher level of value (but more on that later).

And there’s another reason relationships are important: consensus-building.