Building trust in 10 easy steps

People buy from people they trust and from products they trust and believe in.

Building trust is an important step in life, but it is even more important when you engage with people like your colleagues, partners, account executives, prospects, and customers.

How do you build trust with a prospect that you have just met for the first time?

In this blog, we will discuss:

1. The importance of building trust
2. How to build trust in 10 easy steps

Why is building trust so important?

Will you buy a product from a random person you just saw on the street without trying it first and knowing him? Most likely not. Would you expect your prospects to invest thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in your solution if they had no faith in you or your solution to solve their problem? Most likely not.

Trust between you and your prospect or customer makes both of you more willing to do business together, both of you have the same goals, and both are happy with the outcome.

How do you build trust with a prospect you just met?

These 10 tips will help you build trust

Listen

Start by listening to your customers and understanding their current situation. If you peel the onion, you will get to the true pain, and then you can help them solve that pain. Think about what the reason they took this call with you and how do they want you to solve it, what is their pain, why should they choose you over your competitor.

Make sure you take notes and follow through with what you promised.

Show empathy and be honest

Why would you sell a cart to a person who does not even own a horse? You can help them get the horse first so they can return and pick up the cart later. It has happened to me that I have told my customers that my solution isn't for them at the moment but I have given them resources to support them at that moment in their business, some of them returned later and they became our biggest customers.

Let's say your solution might pose some risks to the customer's infrastructure. Let your customers know, explain how others did that, explain why they shouldn't worry, and provide supporting evidence, and be there when they deploy to reduce concerns and support them.

Make a genuine connection with the person and don't rush into the sale - genuinely listen to the persona's story and show genuine interest in their business and life

Know your stuff, but don't know everything

Don't pretend to know everything. Be the expert, but don't claim to be an expert.

Stay humble and relatable while being the expert in the room. People will not engage with you if you know it all and are unapproachable. If you're approachable but don't know your stuff, you're nice but not valuable. Once you achieve both, you will be in the right place.

Say, I don't know

In some situations we might get questions that we don't know the answer to, don't be afraid to say I don't know, let me check that, and then get back to you with an answer, later come back to them with an answer.

Don't forget to come back to them! Just saying it isn't enough. Trust is built by you.

Ask challenging questions without fear

Don't be afraid to ask them challenging questions when the time is right. Identifying the real pain point of your prospect by asking them challenging questions. Provide them with the problem you've discovered and provide guidance on how to best solve it.

Provide facts

Always provide the customer with the real numbers and information. Do not mislead customers. Years of relationship may be destroyed by one lie, which will take years to rebuild.

Make sure you have facts and evidence on hand.

Don't try to make up features or capabilities that you can't do now or plan to have any time soon; tell the customer what your product can do and how it solves their challenges. When you mention planned features, tell the customer that this will be available in X timeframe.

Create trust between groups while navigating between them

Despite thinking great, I built trust with the first person we met. That'll be enough, in reality, you'll have to do it forever with multiple people and groups, not just one.

Be there for your prospects and respond quickly

You should reply to prospects/customers' emails, texts, and phone calls as soon as possible. Especially when it has nothing to do with sales. Whenever they have an issue, help them fix it, even if it's not "your" problem or your responsibility.

Ensure that they are successful in their organization

It should be your goal to help the customer become successful within their organization with your solution. Selling another solution will not build trust with your customers, but solving their challenges and helping them be successful will build trust, and establish relationships.

Taking a long-term approach

There are times when building trust can take time. Not everyone is the same, so for some, they expect to see results over an extended period. Support them and keep providing value and they will eventually trust you.

To summarize,

Credibility, Reliability, Consistency, Speed, Empathy, Integrity, Consult, Manage and deliver results. All will help you to build trust.

What are your methods for building trust?

Till next time,

Menachem.

I want to give credit to Dan P. Caffarey and his community for sharing their thoughts and ideas.