How can you establish trust with your network?

Authenticity in sales is more than a virtue; it's a foundation for success. No single 'salesperson' archetype guarantees success, it's genuine interactions and an enduring learning curiosity that does. I've thrived in sales by being me, defying the 'used car salesman' stereotype. My former boss, an aggressive VP of sales, succeeded in his own way. But I chose my path, maintaining authenticity and achieving my own success. Every successful salesperson has their unique style, a true reflection of themselves. Authenticity instills trust, fostering successful sales relationships.

To understand how trust works, it's important to remember that trust is granted, not earned. one of the best ways early on in a sales conversations is to show your knowledge in product or service.

Trust is an essential element in life, not just sales. Trust can only be built one way - by doing what you committed to doing when you said it would be done. Trust is observed, not heard. The only way to build trust is to be a person who follows through on every promise or commitment. Remember, making a deposit into the trust account takes effort. However, withdrawals happen quickly and are difficult to offset.

A trust network is a group of people that one person can go to when they need help, support, and safety. Everybody has a trust network, even if they don't know it. Trust networks can be full of a range of different people. It could be full of your friends, family members, your colleagues, or even your neighbours.

Every company should have “Building trust” among their main objectives for every employee. Every performance review should include a question: what did you do to build trust with your customers? It should be part of the Corporate culture: Customers know that we are here, we value them, we follow up, we tell the truth. They can rely on us even when things get ugly.

One thing I’ve found helpful, is to always look for ways I can help add value to my customers. My mentality has always been that if you genuinely help others win, you automatically win. Jeffrey Gitomer said it best, “Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.”

The purpose of trust-based networking is to help others: One of the best ways you can help others is to help them build their networks. Review your connections from time to time: Who among your relationships might benefit from being directly connected with each other?

Value exchange forms the foundation of trust and strong relationships. It's important to contribute to any relationship which plants seeds for lasting business relationships.

Value-addition transcends simply chasing purchase orders; it's about becoming a trusted advisor. In my experience, offering knowledge, expertise, and problem solutions yields more success than focusing solely on selling. I strive to be the go-to person for all plastic-related concerns, even if I can't solve them directly. Writing articles, sharing insights, providing solutions – these are ways I demonstrate value. I believe adding value is the pivotal sales skill. Without it, long-term success is elusive.

If there's anything that adds to confusion in marketing it is this ... what does "add value" mean? When I'm teaching this, I'm looking at two areas. 1. Add value with "how to/ advice content that helps people that either are not quite ready to by from you (removing objections), and for the people who already have (building community and helping them remember you). We don't add value with how to content that REPLACES WHAT WE DO. 2. Adding personality. People buy from people we trust. Let them glimpse behind the profile a little and see us. Show them a moment, a perspective, a sharing of your life (within your comfort limits) to help people see you're someone they can connect with and talk to. That's what ADD VALUE means

It's so simple - but don't confuse simple with unimportant... Listen. Listen well. And care about the other person while you're listening. When you actually care, you'll remember the "little" things going on in your network's lives and be able to follow up with them from a place of authenticity.

Always be the person that does what they say they will do. Follow up with the email introduction you promised, and share the article you were talking about... The world is full of people that are quick to offer, but then life gets in the way and they forget to follow through. When you consistently show up and do what you promised that will pay dividends for you in the future.

As someone in charge of sales AND with ADHD I find telling people how often I'll be in contact (at the conclusion of the sales meeting, when I'm going over next steps), and how I'll keep following up until they say a "yes" or a "no" and then doing just that prevents ghosting, has increased my conversion rate, and helped those who would normally ghost rather than say no actually learn to make a call rather than leave me hanging.

Value other people’s time. Add value to their day. Make your contributions useful and inspiring. And if all else fails… make them smile.

LinkedIn recommendations have proven to be critical to my success. Recognizing others can be a valuable way to validate the value and contributions of those in your network.

I think this also relates to the amount of time you put into your network and when you're interacting, be the positive voice they want to hear. There's a lot of negativity on social media in general and it's the last thing I want to see when I log on. I try to remember that when I'm interacting. It's also Simple: -Take the time to read & Celebrate a post. -Repost a motivating or aspirational quote. -Say Happy Birthday or Congrats when you see a milestone! It's huge! -Post when people *need* to see something motivating (Who doesn't need a little push on Mondays?) That's just my perspective! :)

A while ago, I looked into how leaders build or rebuild trust and my findings apply here. Using WAVE, you can establish trust as follows: Words - Be credible and believable in your interactions. Actions - Be who you claim to be. In other words, be authentic. Vulnerability- Be relatable so that your network resonate with you. Ego - Be less focused on yourself. It’s not all about you.

Many sales leaders will talk about trust and all the elements of trust, however the best leaders SHOW that they care about you. They remember things about you, they don’t cancel 1:1s or at the minimum they reschedule. They make you feel like you are priority. That is how others have built trust with me and how I model it. “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”

Business relationships are like all other relationships. They take time and effort. Don't try to take shortcuts. Spend the time investing in your network and they will do the same for you, but don't expect it to happen over night.