Talking to Your Customer About Trust – Part 2

Question: Is trust something you should talk about with your customer? Can you have a frank conversation on the subject, or is trust simply something you earn without a discussion?

In my previous post I addressed the topic of how to talk to your customers about price. You can access that article here.

Today let’s have a discussion about trust.

Can you even have that conversation? You can, and you should.

Your very dedication to this subject eases the concerns of a customer. The fact that you take this seriously and that you acknowledge your responsibility to earn the customer’s trust can go a long way towards establishing a bond with your prospect.

Of course, you must be able to back it up – we’ll get to that.

“The glue that holds all relationships together–including the relationship between the leader and the led–is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” –Brian Tracy

Do it. Talk about trust. Here are three mental frameworks to help you with that conversation.

1. The Trust Promise

I believe it is in your best interest to make a unilateral and unconditional promise to your customer early on in the process. It shouldn’t be a heavy and dramatic scene, but it must be be delivered from the heart. It might sound something like this:

“I will serve you best when you trust me the most. But I understand that your trust is something that I must earn. I just want you to know that I will work diligently to do just that.”

That simple statement can go a long, long way to calming the nerves of even the most discriminating customer.

2. The Trust Proof

You can back up the trust promise with the assurance that you take this seriously with every single customer, and that your past and present customers are living proof.

“I would invite you to talk to any of my current or past customers if it helps you to know that I will deliver on what I promise.”

Your customer gains a tremendous peace of mind when they know that this isn’t just lip service, but that you can back up what you say.

3. The Trust Performance

Now you need to stand by your words. Here’s the cool thing: in making the trust promise you are putting yourself out there. You are putting an appropriate pressure on yourself to perform. That’s a good thing. It will keep you on your toes. It will keep you honest.

This is not rocket science, but it is a vitally important aspect of your service.

A couple of application points to think about:

·      Determine the most important aspects of trust to your customer. What does trustworthy mean to them? How do they determine whether you can be trusted?

·      Do a weekly trust check-up: “Am I continuing to deliver on my promises?”

·      Trust yourself. You are a pro. You take care of people and you do what you say you’re going to do – that’s just how you roll!

Final thought: If you want to develop trust, you have to have trust in your own process. We’ll talk about that in our next installment.

By the way, I had a great conversation on the subject of trust with my friend Bob Burg on a recent episode of my Buyer’s Mind podcast. You can listen to that episode here.


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.