Today I’m sharing my personal top 3 trust building mantras:
- Do what you say & say what you do.
- Be honest – especially when it’s hard. Make sure you use language about a situation. NOT the person.
- Disappointing someone early is better than making them upset because of your failure later.
Do what you say & say what you do.
Yes this sound simple and easy – yet how many times have you failed at something you’ve said you’d do? or failed to do it in the timeframe you’ve committed to?
OR how about doing things for someone you didn’t tell them you’d do THEN been disappointed they didn’t acknowledge you for them. If we don’t tell someone what we’re going to do and when it will be done… there isn’t any trust being built!
Two very different ways to look at doing what you say & saying what you do.
Be honest – especially when it’s hard.
There are times when you’ll know something that makes for a very uncomfortable conversation. One of the keys is to use language about a situation. NOT the person.
Replace “you” or “your” with “the” – the order, the delivery, the scope of work, you get the idea.
Plus take responsibility by using “we” or “our” – our team, we found, etc.
Then apologize – again for the situation.
Early Disappointment
This may sound strange – yet my experience is that people value a salesperson’s willingness to share BAD news quickly / early vs. holding onto the information.
Partially because then your customer can DO something about it… and perhaps together come up with a solution that works for everyone.
Sales-personal side note: many times things that we as salespeople are freaking out about end up being not such a big deal to our customers as we worried they were going to be.
want more? you can also check out Trust is built in SMALL increments (video)