In today's highly competitive economy, it is difficult to
maintain a significant market advantage based on your
professional skills alone. Developing trusting
relationships with your clients is vital to your business
success as well. No matter what business you are in, the
most powerful value-added contribution you can make to any
business relationship is the trust factor.
The trust factor is even more critical in today's business
climate with the level of trust in Corporate America
continuing to be at an all-time low, and suspicion of "all
things corporate" remaining on the rise. To make matters
worse, large corporations and small businesses alike
continue to use antiquated techniques, such as gizmos and
gadgets, to try to win over new clients. When instead,
they should be trying to address the heart of the matter by
utilizing trust-building techniques that will most
effectively resonate with consumers and new prospects.
Clients and prospects are in search of trust in their
business relationships, but building trust and credibility
does not happen overnight. To cultivate trust, it takes the
risk of being open with clients and prospects. This enables
them to perceive you as a real person-one with strengths
and weaknesses that come into play as the relationship
develops. When trust is reciprocal, you will find that your
confidence in others is rewarded by their support and
reinforcement of what you also stand for as a business
entity.
What is Trust
What is trust? Trust can be defined as a firm belief in the
honesty of another and the absence of suspicion regarding
his motives or practices. The concept of trust in business
dealings is simple: Build on an individual's confidence in
you and eliminate fear as an operating principle.
Letting Go of Fear
Let go of fear, which restricts your ability to relate to
others. Letting go frees you of behavioral constraints that
can immobilize your emotional and professional development.
Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of success, fear
of being hurt, fear of the unknown-all these are roadblocks
to developing and growing a trusting relationship with
clients. Let go of your fear of losing an account or not
having the right answers. Leave all your fears at the
client or prospect's doorstep.
Other critical steps in cultivating trust are knowing who
you are and knowing your potential value to your clients.
The relationship that forms because of this can have a
tremendous impact on your sales. People don't just buy from
anyone. They buy from people they can trust. The rapport
and credibility you can establish with the trust factor go
a long way toward building a client's confidence in your
ability to meet his business needs.
Trust has both an active and a passive component in a
business relationship. The active feeling of trust is
confidence in the leadership, veracity, and reliability of
the other party, based on a track record of performance.
The passive feeling of trust is the absence of worry or
suspicion. This absence is sometimes unrecognized and
frequently taken for granted in our most productive
relationships.
Building Trust With Care
So how do you build trust with clients? First, you need to
care about them. Obviously your clients care about your
knowledge, expertise, and accomplishments. However, they
care even more about the level of concern you have for
them. Successful trust building hinges on four actions:
engaging, listening, framing, and committing. The trust
factor can be realized once we understand these components
of trust and incorporate them in our daily lives.
Engaging clients and prospects occurs when you show genuine
concern and interest in their business and its problems.
Maintain good eye contact and body posture. Good eye
contact signifies openness and honesty. And your body
language and other forms of nonverbal communication speak
volumes about your attitude toward them. By the same token,
you want to be cognizant of your client's or prospect's eye
contact and body language.
Listening with understanding and empathy is possible if you
think client focus first. Let the client tell his story.
Put yourself in his shoes when you listen to his business
concerns, purpose, vision, and desires. Show approval or
understanding by nodding your head and smiling during the
conversation. Separate the process of taking in information
from the process of judging it. Just suspend your judgment
and focus on the client. Framing what the client or
prospect has said is the third action in trust building.
Make sure you have formed an accurate understanding of his
problems and concerns. Confirm what you think you heard by
asking open-ended questions such as "What do you mean by
that?" or "Help me to understood the major production
problems you are experiencing." After you have clarified
the problems, start to frame them in order of importance.
By identifying the areas in which you can help the client,
you offer him clarity in his own mind and continue to build
his trust.
Committing is the final action for developing the trust
factor. Communicate enthusiastically your plan of action
for solving the client's problems. Help the client see what
it will take to achieve the end result. Presumably, what
you have said up to this point has been important, but what
you do now-how you commit-is even more important. Remember
the old adage "Action speaks louder than words." Show you
want this client's business long term. Complete assignments
and projects on budget and on time. Then follow up with
clients periodically to see how your partnership is faring.
In the final analysis, trust stems from keeping our word.
If we say we will be there for our clients, then we should
honor that commitment by being there. Trust results from
putting the client's best interest before our own, from
being dependable, from being open and forthcoming with
relevant information. It is impossible to overestimate the
power of the trust factor in our professional lives. Truly,
trust is the basis of all enduring, long-term business
relationships.
----------------------------------------------------
Robert Moment is an innovative small business coach,
speaker and author. Robert specializes in teaching
entrepreneur how to start a small business that profits and
grow. Visit his website
http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com
and sign-up
for the FREE Small Business Coaching 7 day e-course titled,
"Turn Passion into Profits: Small Business Startup".
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