Trust me, it matters

In their 2018 State of Sales report, LinkedIn found that trust was the top indicator for sales success.

Ninety-nine percent of sales professionals said trust was “very important” or “important” to winning new business.  Fifty-one percent of decision makers rank trust as the number one factor they desire in a salesperson, followed by responsiveness (42%), expertise in the field (42%), problem solving (37%) and transparency (34%).

Trust is a perception someone else has of you.  You can’t hold it, store it or buy it.  It may seem that building or rebuilding trust is simply a matter of being honest and acting trustworthy, i.e. more art than science.  But Frances Frei, a Professor at Harvard Business School has a great model for building trust that she shares in her TED talk.  She describes three key components:

• Authenticity– being your real self, not trying to act like someone else or pretending to be what you think others expect.  It’s hard for people to trust you, if they don’t think they’re seeing the real you.
• Empathy– listening attentively, paying attention and understanding the other persons situation and point of view.  It’s hard for people to trust you if you don’t understand them.  “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
• Logic– sharing information and data that makes sense and would pass the fabled “pub test”.  If just one part of your story doesn’t seem true, maybe they will question everything else.  Exaggeration is an enemy of trust.

The first two of these are immediately within your control and cost nothing to do really well.  Being yourself and practicing empathy are entirely up to you.  Easy to say, but not always easy to do under pressure.  Doing them well make take practice.

Things you can do to build trust the next time you’re meeting someone.

1. Be your authentic self.  Avoid the temptation to play the role of your job title or act more posh for an important person.
2. Take a genuine interest in understanding the other person.  Be curious and interested.
3. Know your story, understand the facts and figures well enough to support them if asked

Trust is something you build over time.  If both sellers and decision makers agree it’s the number one factor in sales success, then it must be worth doing deliberately, rather than hoping or assuming it takes care of itself.