Trust is not built in a Zoom room

Although it has been said in almost every context this year, 2020 is different. For those working in a revenue organization, the lack of being able to meet prospects and customers in person has created a need to transition from flights and business lunches to Zoom meetings and calendar roulette.  

If you’d been able to create and build relationships prior to the shutdown, you may be able to leverage this to drive ongoing engagement in alignment with your account strategy. Oftentimes the first face-to-face meeting helps break down barriers, moving you from ‘a voice on the phone’ to a human being with shared experiences.

But if you are responsible for developing relationships in this new normal, you know that the requirement for adding value has exponentially increased. While decision makers and influencers were busy in the past, people typically weren’t hitting Zoom overload every single day. In the world of 100% remote work, each 30 minute work slot holds even more value. While your customers used to be able to utilize hallway conversations for quick internal alignment, now it falls to slack and Zoom meetings, adding more to their busy plate. 

 This means it is even more critical to establish trust with your customers. In interviews, I like asking how a person has built trust with a customer. Oftentimes, the difficulty isn’t in the fact that someone doesn’t have an example of this, but in being able to describe a thoughtful and repeatable approach. Being able to reflect on these key skills in order to consistently execute against them is important for long term success. 

Trust isn’t built in a 30 minute Zoom meeting talking about the weather, sports or your children’s schooling situation. While those commonalities may make the conversation more enjoyable, ongoing relationships and ultimately, business transactions, are reliant on trust.

Having trust means that your contact believes spending time with you is valuable to advance their goals. Trust is that you are a good use of their time. And trust is when you ask for another meeting, or an introduction, you are doing it with their objective in mind – not yours. At the end of the day, trust = value.  

If you are looking to establish trust and build a value-add relationship with your prospect or customer, I suggest using these guidelines:  

Actions speak louder than words

As anyone who has been on an escalation path can attest, when a customer is frustrated or upset, words can feel somewhat meaningless. What person isn’t going to say “we will work to improve this moving forward” when a customer is angry? That ‘future’ is where the rubber meets the road. Being someone who talks with confidence but continually ends up apologizing when things don’t happen creates an erosion of trust. Execution is critically important. When you commit to something, you need to follow through. The customer doesn’t care (and arguably, doesn’t need to know) that you’re held up as you are waiting on another team who may have a slow response. As the customer point of contact, you own the communication and company face. One of the fastest ways to build confidence is to do what you said you would.

Set expectations

Another one of my favorite interview questions is understanding when you’ve had to tell a customer no. If this hasn’t happened for you yet, I encourage you to think through the expectations you are setting with your customer. One of the best things we can do for a customer is to say no, and say it quickly. Think about it – if you ask for something and are told ‘maybe’ and then don’t hear back for a while, you begin to believe it is being more strongly considered or even worked on in the background. By hearing no and confirming something isn’t going to happen, it allows you to get to the next stage of the discussion – alternatives and criticality. For example, if you know a feature the customer is asking for won’t be on the upcoming roadmap, it is better to address upfront and be able to partner in designing alternative ways you may be able to help them meet the stated objective. Customers are not experts in your product and often need you to help them understand if there are different ways to get to the same outcome. 

Don’t get me wrong – if you say no to everything asked, you may not have a customer for long. No is a tool in your proverbial toolbox, but it provides for long term trust as you aren’t wasting the customer’s time on something that won’t come to be. 

Highlight wins

Sales, and even customer success to some extent, is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ world. Buying or using your product or service often isn’t someone’s full time focus, as it is for you. Given that, one critical factor for building trust is reminding the prospect or customer when you’ve held up your end of the bargain. This provides you the chance to validate and reinforce value. Highlighting key milestones, outcome achievements and business impact continues to drive focus on their goals – engaging a customer’s willingness to keep sharing information, spending time with your team, advocating for your solution and making introductions.    

Similar to any workout routine, building trust takes time, but eroding it can happen quickly. While it is important to be aware of opportunities to build trust, you also need to think through quick mistakes that erode trust. 

The behind the back introduction

Your contact has been slow to respond, leaving you frustrated and your boss asking what the status is on the deal. It is tempting to want to escalate on your contact - going to his/her boss. There may be certain circumstances where this is acceptable (you’ve been introduced to the boss, you know your contact is overloaded and this is the escalation point to ensure you stick to the customer’s timeline, etc), it is a tricky situation that may derail a deal or create long term friction. In this case, I propose leveraging your team for positioning. If you are positioned with the IT Director, ask your boss to assist in reaching out to the VP of IT. This doesn’t put you in the direct line of fire, but still allows you to meet your goal of connecting with additional stakeholders. 

Two other ways you can position an introduction:

• Via meeting strategy - For example: ‘I’d like to bring my VP in our next QBR to talk about X, Y, Z. Can we also invite A (VP level) from your team, as I believe he/she would see value out of this discussion’.
• Ask your contact for key details that you will need to better qualify/support the opportunity discussion. If they are not sure, or don’t own all of the impacts, ask to speak directly to the stakeholders so that you can provide the best support and solution. 

Dropping the ball

Delivering on your promises is critical to establishing trust. If you find that you aren’t able to hit a commitment, use the next conversation to level set and outline next steps. Do not ignore the slip or try to brush it under the rug, but be ready to outline (in a way that is appropriate to share externally), what went wrong, steps to mitigate, and the updated solution delivery. 

Selling something they don’t need

In the sales (or upsell) cycle, you are your customer’s guide. They are reliant on you to provide realistic expectations and product suggestions. While you may be able to ‘sneak one by them’ in an upfront sale, once they realize that what was promised can’t be realized, or that they won’t see any benefit from that additional line item added in, they will lose trust with you and your company. Given that only 5-30% of company revenue comes from the initial sale, being able to establish a strong foundation for growth sets your future success.  

Become Unresponsive

During a sales cycle, the seller or CSM is typically very attentive, looking to continue to hit milestones that lead to closing the sale. Oftentimes, a buyer will hear lines like “call my cell phone if you have any questions” or “I’m available any time”. You lose trust when you abruptly change post sale and rather than being attentive, your contact can’t get a response from you for days or weeks. This is magnified if you suddenly reappear just before a renewal, or when a new product is available for upselling. While there may be ebbs and flows in the level of engagement with an account, maintaining some level of contact (often, dictated by the customer’s needs) allows you to be available as needed. 

With no immediate end to remote work in sight for many people across the country, being thoughtful about building and maintaining relationships, with a foundation of trust, is critical for those working in a revenue organization.