5 STEPS FOR YOU TO BUILD TRUST

10 years ago, in the May I came into a situation where I needed to sell four big items.

My pickup truck, our daughters’ motorcycle, our RV camper, and a friend’s SUV they dropped off before moving south.

In the spring I have tons of yard work and I was becoming frustrated with the vision of watching potential buyers kick the tires, waste my time, and then leave telling me they would think about it.

Fortunately, I picked up a copy of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book on Influence, the psychology of persuasion. I read it and found the solution to ease my mind.

Cialdini shares we are wired to build fear in our minds whenever we are making a big investment which raises the ugly head of mistrust.

You do not trust the government, the news, social media, or the 100’s people you don't know who call you and send you emails trying to sell you something.

You hang up on them, skip their calls, delete their emails and so does your potential customers.

By following Cialdini’s advice this difficult frustrating situation of having to sell the four items became a smooth, enjoyable process for the buyers and myself.

 I sold all four items in two weeks at prices I and the buyers were both happy with.

A year ago, I sold my business and inventory with the same results.

The lawyer handling my business sale shared with me after the buyers left. He had never in handling 100’s of businesses and property sales over 46 years seen such a smooth closing.

Its not that I am so smart.

Dr. Robert Cialdini is.

This stuff works.

Every sale you offer someone has strengths and weaknesses.

Your buyer is looking for signals, signs, anything to tell them this is a bad investment or a good investment.

You do the same process when you make a big investment.

You can sell your products and services quicker, with fewer returns, at prices fairer to you, and build greater customer loyalty with these persuasion skills.

Here are 5 steps I came up with from Cialdini’s book.

1.     Give more information than is common. I listed all four items on Craigslist. I listed lots of pictures, 16 of each item from different angles of what I would want to see if I was buying the item. Additionally, there was a lot of content on each item listed, at least two competitive items just like mine from competitors for sale with a link to those items to compare. I included a write up from the year that item was made, a review of that item from an independent source, and a market research of its current value from another independent source.

2.      Do not cover up the warts. I shared all the WARTS too. The warts were listing all the negatives of buying this product. The truck had 82,000 miles on it, it was 2-wheel drive, it would need new tires by next spring, the rear seat had a tear in it, there were scratches in the paint, rust on two of the wheels I couldn’t get off, it was a heavy duty truck with excellent towing power yet got 15 mpg, etc. Every wart listed out and when the potential buyer arrived, I started the communication thanking them for coming to see it and shared the negatives 1st.

This concept of sharing the bad news seems like going against the grain, possibly scarring the buyer off, maybe they would not have noticed these negatives if I kept quiet, right?

WRONG! Buyers are smart today and do their homework before the purchase.

If you want a smooth sale your 1st objective is to build trust.

 All this tension was in the air when the potential buyers arrived, after sharing the negatives it was like I untied the balloon full of tension and it disappeared immediately.

3.     Share comparisons, social proof of your offer. After sharing the negatives, I handed each potential buyer a folder with 5 other items listed on Craigslist or another source identical to the item I was selling. Similar mileage, same brand, same model, similar condition including a picture of it, pricing, and contact information. also listed was my item and the pros, pluses of the item I owned listed. Each of the buyers was surprised I was giving them competitive evaluation information to help them make their own decision on the best buying choice for them. They didn’t have to go home or use their own phone to jump on-line to make an intelligent decision. I was getting into their shoes, moving onto their side of the table, being 100% up front with the pros and cons for their decision. I had taken all the guess work out of them having enough information to make their right decision.

4.     Now leave them alone to make their decision. After handing everything over to them, I walked 50’ away and sat in a lawn chair with a magazine to let them do their due diligence.

Many individuals called the competitors listed in the folders to find out if their information was true. It was.

Two potential buyers even called me over to tell me I was not a liar.

I will make sure to put that in my resume, lol.

 Cialdini states if I we are honest with buyers and build trust 1st, they will be upfront with us. I hoped everyone would tell me sooner rather than later, yes or no and they did. This speed the whole sale process up with no pressure.

5.     Keep your emotions out of the sale, be friendly and share the facts. I kept my cool and focused on what was the best decision for them with a no-hard sell. Two of the people who did buy items wanted to negotiate $500-$1000 off the prices and I showed them the competitive items in the folder that were cheaper and we discussed the fact the other items had more wear on them or were not as nice. On these two items our negotiations came down to $100 additional discount.

Selling can seem like a pushy and sometimes sleazy business, but for you it doesn’t have to be that way.

Sell being yourself, who are really are.

Use proven sales processes, study Jeffery Gitomer, Dr. Robert Cialdini and others who have paved the way to help you make your sales a success.

If you would like to discuss these methods to use in your business sales process, contact me Jim McEntire for a free visit, no strings attached and I'll even bring my on-line lawn chair.

https://www.blueprintforselling.com/