Building and Gaining Trust with Customers

During the past 9 years at entero I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to build many long term relationships with my clients. Central to our culture at entero is sharing our experiences as a team.  Every day we have team members lead morning training sessions and I recently shared this topic in one of these morning sessions with our team. We are blessed to have a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on our team and we have a culture of continual learning and improvement.

Customers generally avoid buying from people they do not trust. They do not like the hard sell and do like to buy from people with which they have trusted relationship.  The decision process is easier and more certain.

Pushy sales executives cause customers to put up a barrier the moment the hard sell radar goes off! Customers want an expert, someone who is confident, knows the product or service well and genuinely cares but them as a customer. Customers want to buy from people they like and trust.

How do we build and gain trust with our clients at entero?

Transparency  You should not have to “switch gears” in your personality to sell. Being yourself will bring out the humble confidence that is attractive, putting your customer at ease. Insecure “performers” are a turn-off. Every meeting should be a conversation, not a sales pitch. Remember, a customer is trying to figure out if they can trust you.

Reliability  A customer's ability to trust you is dependent upon showing the customer that your behavior is reliably consistent over time. When a customer can predict your behavior, that customer is more likely to trust you. Remember, our business is often unplanned events, fire drills, urgent needs to staff critical positions. The success of major initiatives hang-on getting the right contract resources. They need to know that we are ready to serve and deliver. When a customer can predict your behavior, that customer is more likely to trust you. Always do what you say you will do. Do not over-promise.

Unselfishness  If you want customers to value having a relationship with you, they must truly believe that this relationship is important to you. Focus on helping them rather than just making a sale. Ask sincere questions and listen closely to hear clues about deeper customer needs. Put yourself in their shoes. Bear in mind that they are looking out for their own business interests. Anything you say or do that does not align with their needs will cause them to lose trust.

Sincerity Our customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care about them and their business success. Sincerity is being free from deceit, hypocrisy and pretense. When you consistently operate in a transparent fashion, customers will grow in their trust and confidence in you. Appreciate and understand the depth of trust when a customer gives you a business opportunity. Say what you mean and mean what you say and remember actions speak louder than words.

Trustworthiness It is possible to deliver the right candidate (or whatever product you sell) on occasion and still not be dependable or reliable. To be a top producing recruiter or salesperson you will need to be someone that is consistently worthy of other’s trust. Keep every one of your promises. Communicate information even when the news is not favorable and be someone that others can consistently rely upon to deliver.