The language of sales trust

Liz Wendling //January 24, 2013//

The language of sales trust

Liz Wendling //January 24, 2013//

Trust is the single biggest motivator of buyer behavior and one of the key components to establishing a successful buyer/seller relationship. Do your potential customers trust what you say?  Do they trust you as a salesperson and a business professional?

When meeting a new client, the first 30-60 seconds establishes your believability and the first three minutes establishes your credibility.

Your prospects will most likely decide within the first few minutes of talking to you whether you’re the kind of person they want to do business with. We size people up based on the way they communicate with us – and we do this very quickly. It comes down to trust or no trust.

Customers overwhelmingly buy from people they trust.  These customer relationships are longer lasting, more effective and more efficient than relationships not built on trust. But building trust takes time, and the only way to do it is to sell in a trustworthy manner.

Your potential customers are not only listening with their ears, they also are observing with their eyes. Do you have a specific, well-thought-out plan designed to overcome this obstacle and build greater levels of trust with your customers?

In the past, customers had negative perceptions of salespeople because selling itself had been associated with manipulation, dishonesty and trickery.  That stereotype of untrustworthy, lying salespeople still comes back to haunt the sales profession today.  But salespeople can play a critical role in its dismantling.

You may be the most honest salesperson on the planet but if your customers don’t perceive you to be trustworthy because of sloppy sales skills and negative selling behaviors, it doesn’t matter.

Knowing, understanding and possessing the traits that customers like are the best way to gain trust and close the sale.  So, in addition to being honest, you need to be knowledgeable, punctual, solution-based and customer-focused, just to name a few. It’s the way you relate to others that determines your customer’s level of trust.

Paying attention to what makes you believable, credible and trustworthy will go a long way in helping you project the language of trust.

I see salespeople destroy their trust in the sales process and rarely recover, but it does not have to be that way!  Always check your behavior. Focus on trust-building activities with customers by creating an action plan and then constantly focus on executing that plan. Once you’re able to increase your trust factor with buyers, you will also see an increase in sales. Salespeople who fail to put an emphasis on developing trust and rapport actually do a disservice to their customers and leave the back door open to their competition.

To be a professional salesperson, conduct yourself as a true professional. Your buyers will like it when you do – and you’ll be more successful. The most effective way to build that trust is to put customers first; always. You must do this by design, not by default.

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, your customers have many options and they are looking for a salesperson they know they can trust to work in their best interest. It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell.