Here’s what you need to understand – the aspect of trust is one of the hardest things to build and maintain with most business proposals out there. However, once it is earned, it is more-or-less smooth sailing from that point onwards because most of the hard work has been done. Always remember the fact that trust is earned, never given. Plus with your prospects trusting you, the sheer importance of customer experience will also be revealed to you in due time.
In the beginning of the agreement, it is only natural that you will occupy the middle ground when it comes down to trustworthiness. Sure, for a lot of people out there, this may seem like a near impossibility given how intangible the metric os trust actually is in the real world, but there are a few steps that one can take to make the entire process easier and smoother. Here are the seven factors that make your prospects trust you with their money:-
Establishing your credibility:
Here, you primarily need to focus on making yourself more known to them in general. That is the key. It is only natural to be a bit wary at first of sales people whose credibility is yet to be proven. Once you’ve established your credibility, that will automatically bring them closer to trusting you.
The aspect of proof:
Today, most people follow trends or do something because they see other people doing it. In the same way, you can harness the power of the bandwagon effect and start asking for LinkedIn recommendations from both former and current customers alike. With a few glowing endorsements, you will have a lot of prospects knocking at your door.
Get them to share their negative experiences with you: Here, you could encourage them to talk about their experience and get it out of their system. Once they notice you caring about their bad experience, they will have a better reason to trust you with their money.
The art of consistency:
If you are looking to build trust, a long-term sense of consistency is vital. Hence, in the long-term, don’t solely focus on the terms of the client’s contract, but also all the promises you made to him during the sales process as well.
Displaying genuine concern:
This involves personal details about their lives and information that they would only share with you if they trust you. If you show genuine concern, you can be sure that they will repay you with their trust.
Putting your faith in them:
Trust is a two way street. There are no two ways about that fact in particular. Simply demonstrating a level of trust in your prospect will immediately encourage them to trust you in the same way. When they say “I trust your judgement”, you know that you’ve won.
Proper eye contact:
Even though you might not realise this at first, a lack of any eye contact can lead to people thinking that you have shady intentions and are untrustworthy in nature. While talking, one should always maintain a direct line of eye contact.
Once trust is built, a lot of the aspects of selling will become much clearer than before. Most importantly, stop looking at emails and web analytics as mere modes of measurement. Subtly, both the aspects are the customers talking back to you about which content pieces are relevant and which search terms work in the best way.
Sure, trust certainly cannot be built in a day. However, there is indeed a great deal that you can do to build a strong and resistant trust foundation just so that you are able to make your prospects trust you faster. It pretty much goes without saying that the above steps will go a ong way in securing that trust.
