Develop Your Sales by Building Trust

Successful salespeople have a knack for making people feel important. They understand the value of building trust and rapport early on in the selling process. It really doesn't matter how knowledgeable you are about your product line or how many closing techniques you have mastered, unless you earn your prospect's trust and confidence you are not going to make the sale.

Once you have established trust and rapport with your prospect, you will encourage a situation where you make it easy for them to buy from you. Often there is not much difference in specific products that we sell anymore and the amount of trust you can build with your prospects becomes the only differentiator between you and your competitors.

While there is no system that will work 100 percent of the time with every situation, studies show that there are four elements that precede trust.

Ethics — Conducting business with honesty and using good business practices, such as a high standard of customer service and high personal moral values.

Bonding — Conducting an individualised and value-added relationship over a long period of time. This may include feelings of friendship.

Empathy — The ability to see a situation from another person’s perspective. ‘Take a walk in the customer’s shoes’.

Reciprocity — Providing favours or making allowances in return for similar favours or allowances.

So next time you enter a sales discussion, consider the four points above and how you can build a trusting relationship with your customer...it's what the great salespeople do!

This article is taken from a section in the workbook of 'Practical Sales Skills', which is a set of training course materials that our customers have been downloading and using to develop their sales team. Visit our website today for sales success! You will also find many other useful training resources.