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If you
want to create great, long-lasting
sales relationships, you need
to earn trust. Building
a foundation of trust is a simple
concept, but not everyone takes
the time to do it. They just imagine
that they are trustworthy, so
people should trust them. Why?
Why should I trust you? Over time,
we can create trusting relationships
with friends and associates, but
is there anything to do immediately
that would communicate a sense
of trustworthiness to a potential
customer?
Here’s
the key: it’s your behaviors
that influence, not your intentions!
You can have the best, most honorable
intentions in the world and they
won’t mean anything unless
your behaviors—your actions
and your words—demonstrate
what’s going on inside.
You cannot influence someone to
believe in you, to trust you,
unless you are demonstrating trustworthy
behaviors.
Four
core dimensions can help
you identify what behaviors create
a foundation for trust: respect,
empathy, specificity and genuineness.
- Respect is
one of those words that people
are always throwing around
lightly. It’s not a
light word. It means that
when you are interacting with
a customer, you treat them
as you want to be treated.
You respect their time, their
right to ask questions and
even their right to say, ‘no’!
You remember that you are
committed to offering value
and creating a foundation
for a long-term relationship.
You listen.
- Empathy is
more than just listening.
Empathy is the demonstration
that you have not only understood
what the other person
is feeling, but why
he feels that way. If your
customer is resisting you
or fretting about price, you
listen carefully and you may
respond by saying, “so,
you’re concerned because
you’re not sure this
price creates the greatest
value for you?” or,
“so, you’re feeling
frustrated because the customer
service center didn’t
return your call when you
wanted your question answered?”
This allows the person to
be heard—a natural
human need—and often
can help pave the way for
continued communication and
negotiation. When you find
your customers repeating the
same information over and
over, don’t assume there
is something wrong with them,
in fact, they may not feel
that you’ve heard them,
so demonstrating empathy allows
you to do that, so you can
both move on.
- Specificity
means you don’t leave
out any details that you,
yourself, would want to know.
It also means you listen to
the questions being asked
and you answer as specifically
as you are able. If you don’t
know, don’t fake it,
tell them you’ll find
out and then follow up! The
degree to which we are not
specific, people have to guess,
and this can cause miscommunication,
a decrease in trust and lost
relationships.
- Genuineness
may be the most important
one. You can mess up a lot
of things in communication,
but if you’re not sincere,
none of the rest of it matters.
Check yourself. Don’t
interact with hidden agendas.
Be able to look yourself in
the mirror and know you are
acting with honesty and integrity.
Be sincere in your speech,
your body language and your
humility. You can be a confident,
assertive sales professional
all while demonstrating genuineness—and
people will know it and respond
to it!
Of course,
demonstrating high levels of these
core dimensions over time is what
really creates the strong foundations
for relationships built on trust.
Those are the kinds of relationships
where price is irrelevant and
no matter what, they’ll
buy from you because they
trust you.
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