Increase Trust to Increase Sales
Who has put hours of effort into pricing a job only to lose it to someone else that the client says “is a better fit”? Everyone, right? This can be even more frustrating if the other company has put in a higher bid! Why didn’t you get the job? Your price was competitive. You do quality work. You have the capacity to do it. What it may come down to is that the prospective client didn’t TRUST you enough.
But you’re a trustworthy person! Can’t they see that? Well, possibly they can’t, or at least you didn’t do enough to build up that level of trust more than the other company did. In the residential market in particular, building up the level of trust at the early stages of the sales process is vital to increasing your chances of securing a sale, without having to slash your price. With the country going into a period of economic and political uncertainty, consumers are going to be looking even harder for companies that give them a feeling of comfort and certainty. The more you do at the start to build up the trust level, the easier the final sale will be.
So what can you do to increase that trust level. Luckily there is a formula for trust and it can be expressed as follows:
TRUST = (CREDIBILITY + RELIABILITY + INTIMACY) – SELF ORIENTATION
Here are some things to do to work on each of the formula’s components:
Increase credibility through words and stories.
- Newsletter
- Proposals
- Staff qualifications
- Testimonials (or even better use Case Studies)
- Do your homework on the client
- Don’t tell lies or exaggerate, ever.
Increase reliability through actions
- Under promise and over deliver
- Go the extra mile. Deliver in person
- Provide useful, independent advice on the project
- Return phone calls very quickly
- Better meet and greet
Increase intimacy through regular contact, empathy and caring.
- Learn about family
- “Just thinking about you” call
- On-site visits
- Events and entertainment. Fun attitude (if appropriate)
Decrease self-orientation by listening more and always being client focussed.
- Let the client fill the gaps
- Ask open ended, client-focused questions.
- Reflective listening
- Taking most of the responsibility for failed communications
Action exercise: What specific actions can you do to apply improve half of the bullet points above in your sales process?
Need help? Book a strategy session HERE to start working on improving your sales process and developing more effective levels of trust with potential customers.
Andy Burrows