This Isn't a Waste of Time

Would you be willing to spend five minutes you can never get back if it meant you could earn someone’s trust for life?

When my first child was three months old, we learned she would need skull reconstruction surgery. At twenty-three, I was learning on the job how to be a parent. After several appointments with the surgeon, the day of the procedure was upon us.

As they prepped my small baby for the surgery, I kept looking for a face I knew. Not one was to be found. So, I did the only thing my brain would permit, I asked to see the surgeon.

When he came to see us, he said, “Well, obviously she still needs the surgery, why did you want to see me?”

I didn’t know how to respond. My husband didn’t know why I requested to see the surgeon, so he couldn’t respond either.

“Are we good to proceed?” he finally said.

“Yes,” was all I could muster. At least now I knew he was there, the person I was entrusting my precious child to.

At my daughter’s two-year check up, after the examination, the surgeon told us he had had a child. I congratulated him and took a chance at helping him understand my feelings on the morning of the surgery.

“You were the only one I knew in the hospital,” I said. “And now you probably understand much better why I had to be certain you were the one I was leaving her with.”

“I do understand, now, and I’m sorry,” he said. When I looked into his eyes, I knew he was full of feelings he didn’t voice.

It took him five minutes on a busy morning that was probably full of surgeries, but I wasn’t going to send my child back without seeing him.

The idea we’re obliterating today:

We can build trust without an investment of time.

The remake:

When we’re strategic about building trust, we can take five minutes here and there to make sure potential purchasers get the answers they need from us.

Here are three ways to think about time investments with purchasers who might need reassurance.

?? 1. Don’t take their questions as doubt in your abilities. If someone is able to ask you questions, that means they are trusting you to answer. You can use this moment of vulnerability mixed with faith to help them see why your solution is different.

?? 2. Ask questions that draw out root issues related to their mistrust. When you are building a relationship with a potential purchaser and they tell you they are nervous, don’t automatically reassure them. Ask them why they’re nervous first. You can speak much better to their concerns when you understand the root issues behind those concerns.

?? 3. Give them three chances. I don’t usually like to have hard and fast rules about building trust with potential clients, but if you have three conversations with someone and they’re still too nervous to move forward, they probably need more time. If you try to convince them to take action when they’re so nervous, working with them isn’t going to be fun for them or you.

While I understand we can never make more minutes, we might benefit from being slightly more liberal with giving away five here and there to build real trust.

One Lit Moment:

“Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.” –Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

What Kristin is Writing/Thinking About:

As the holiday season approaches, I’m thinking about how I want to invest my time in the remaining days of 2024, and I can’t think of a better professional goal than to help business owners and teams who have been burned in the past finally see help with their professional communication and copywriting.

Are you looking to make sure your first quarter of the new year is what you hope it can be? Let’s have a conversation to define your strategic goals and how they fit with your offers.

Talk soon,

Kristin N. Spencer

About the Author:

Kristin N. Spencer is an International Bestselling Author, Writing Consultant, Value-Based Marketing Expert, and Speaker who has worked as a Ghostwriter on the bench of Forbes Books. She is the owner, lead writer, and big boss lady for Literary Symmetry, LLC where she helps companies and entrepreneurs craft language through copywriting that make sales easier and faster with her proven, contrarian approaches. Kristin has hosted two top 5% podcasts, including Your Business Story, and is always excited to help business professionals share their strategic stories.