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SAVVY
SELLING - AUGUST
3, 2006
Five
Ways to Build Customer Trust
By Michelle Nichols
EXECUTIVE
OVERVIEW
Building trust builds sales.
Here are 5 paths to more customer
trust.
Increasing the trust
your customers have in you,
your company, products, and
industry is one of the most
cost-effective ways to sell
more
“To be trusted is a
greater compliment than being
loved,” said Scottish
author George MacDonald. When
your customers trust you, you
can charge higher prices than
your competitors do, offer a
different feature set than your
customers are looking for, and
require a longer wait for delivery—and
customers will still buy from
you. Customer trust is that
powerful.
When salespeople lament that
they didn't win the big sale
they thought they deserved,
the reason is often because
the customer had more trust
in another vendor. This is actually
good news for everyone who is
not the low-price purveyor or
who doesn't represent products
with the latest bells and whistles.
It means that sometimes the
salesperson who wouldn't get
the sale based on measurable
criteria like speed and cost
actually wins the order based
on an intangible — like
trust.
Don't get mad—get smart.
Here are five suggestions on
how you can earn more trust.
Don't forget, it's far more
powerful to demonstrate reasons
to be trusted than to just talk
about it.
1. Build trust in your company.
If your company has any type
of certificates that attest
to the trustworthiness of how
you do business, make sure all
sales reps carry color copies.
If customers or vendors come
to your office, post copies
in the reception area of your
business. These certificates
are "silent sellers."
For example, I recently had
a salesman from a heating and
air conditioning service call
on me. During his presentation,
he showed me his company's city
business license, HVAC license,
and Better Business Bureau certificate.
Each document was in a plastic
page, which increased its value
to me. That selling step increased
my trust in his company.
2. Build trust in your products
and services. Testimonial letters
are a great way to build customer
trust in what you sell, especially
those letters that describe
how life or business changed
for the better after a customer
bought from you. Make color
copies, put them in plastic
page protectors, and, again,
have all the sales reps carry
them and frame them for your
office walls, too.
Hiring outside companies to
measure your results is also
a great way to increase trust.
When I see an Underwriter's
Laboratory tag hanging on any
electrical device, I trust its
safety more. When I see statistics
with a footnote that the results
have been approved by a certified
accounting agency, I trust the
facts more. Think of simple
ways you can help your customers
trust your offerings more completely
and quickly.
3. Build trust in you. Earning
a customer's trust in you as
a person starts with the basics.
Are you on time? If you say
you'll be there at 9 in the
morning and you show up at 9:10,
how do you expect your customer
to believe you when you say
your copier makes 25 copies
per minute or your products
are within 0.001 mm of the specifications?
You may not think being on
time and the quality of your
offerings are related, but when
a customer is just getting to
know you, they don't have a
lot of history to evaluate,
so every bit counts.
I hope I don't have to say
it, but be über-ethical
in all your business dealings.
Many years ago, I owned a company
that sold safety products. One
of my customers ordered and
paid for a product, but when
I delivered it a week later,
it had gone on sale and I didn't
refund the difference. Several
years later, a friend of hers
told me about my lapse in judgment.
I bet in that intervening time
my customer told more of her
friends about what I did and,
as a result, they all had less
trust in me. Ouch.
Learn from my lesson and be
scrupulous in how you deal with
your customers, especially with
regards to pricing and money.
Also note how my customer didn't
confront me for her refund;
rather, she told her friends
about the situation. Your customers
may not confront you when you
do the wrong thing, either.
4. Build trust in your marketing.
Don't stretch the truth in any
of your sales or marketing materials.
Customers have their radar on
for "sins of omission and
commission," so stick to
the truth. This applies to all
your marketing— materials,
sales presentations, press releases,
advertising, business cards,
and Web sites.
5. Build trust in your industry.
Sometimes, entire industries
have a bad reputation. Even
if you run a trustworthy operation
in such an industry, you have
a selling challenge persuading
your customers to trust your
industry as well as your particular
operation.
Be on the lookout for articles
in respected media that show
the good side or the progress
in your industry. When you find
them, make copies available
to your customers so they can
judge for themselves based on
current information.
There are many ways you can
increase your sales. Increasing
the trust your customers have
in you, your company, your products,
your marketing, and even your
industry is one of the most
cost-effective ways to sell
more and close faster at better
profit margins. Happy selling!
Michelle Nichols is a
professional sales speaker and
consultant based in Reno, Nevada.
She welcomes your questions
and comments. You can visit
her web site at www.savvyselling.com
or contact her at michelle.nichols@savvyselling.com.
Her toll-free number is (877)
352-9684.
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