In selling, building a solid basis of trust is more important nowadays than ever before. If you can call a customer on a Friday evening and ask a favour you have a good relationship with this particular customer. If you can not do this, you are not doing your job as a professional sales person properly. This is how a well-known sales training consultant paraphrases the quality of a successful relationship between a sales person and a customer.

Trust is the cornerstone of such a relationship. If a salesperson proves that they are personally trustworthy, they will not only find that doors are being opened to them within the customer’s company, but that their own self-confidence will be boosted.

How do you and your salespeople go about building up your customers’ trust in you?

1. Always tell the truth.
Giving excuses or deploying delaying techniques or any other kind of tactics is a no no.

Never make a promise that you can not keep. If you have said that you will call a customer back, make sure that you do just that. Make sure that your deliveries arrive on the day that you and the customer agreed on.

If you cannot deliver on the required date, then do not promise the client that you will.  

2. Never blame others.
If a mistake is made you should not put the blame for this onto anyone else: “The people from the finance department got it wrong again...”  Whoever you blame, it is still your organisation.

3. Try to do something unusual.
The customer should feel that you really want to do business with them. They want to feel that they are being taken seriously and are important to you. The things you do do not have to be big things, often small things have the greatest effect: personally deliver an order or write a personal letter when sending a written proposal. The customer’s trust in you always grows when you do something unusual and unexpected that makes them feel special.

4. Provide a top advice service.
About three quarters of all buying decisions do not depend on the product or the company, but solely on the salesperson. A salesperson can be selling an absolutely top of the range product, but that does not save them from having to ask the customer for an appointment and carrying out a careful analysis in order to assess the customer’s requirements correctly. Sales training can ensure your salespeople know how to ask the right questions to determine real needs.

5. Reduce purchase risk.
Once the customer has gained confidence the next step is to eliminate the risk of purchasing gradually. In addition to the classical methods such as money-back guarantees, long-term quality guarantees and free samples, salespeople can contribute a lot towards reducing this risk.

There are several ways this can be achieved:

Be prepared to start small. If your customer uses 30 printers, for example, suggest that they buy just one machine on a trial basis.  Despite the ‘small beginning’, offer the customer the same service that they would get with a large order.

Provide references. Nothing convinces a customer more than other satisfied clients. Ask you customer to inquire about your reliability, your service and your honesty. Rather than using references about your product, emphasise more references about you yourself. Give the structure of a story to your references. Most companies have standard references consisting of a list of company names, addresses, telephone numbers and negotiating partners. An alternative structure for a reference list could also include details of the equipment the customers have purchased and, perhaps, a brief explanation of their purchasing situation. For example, of a printer supplier reference:

‘Sally Jones is the office manager for XYZ Ltd. The old printers often broke down which meant that people had to wait a long time for their documents. In early 2010 we installed three model 938 printers. Since then only two minor faults have occurred, both of which were rectified within two hours. Sally has recently ordered a fourth printer.’

For every client try and devise a reference story that provides a solution.  Where possible, use pictures to accompany your stories which show your satisfied clients with your products.

6. Keep in contact. 
A good relationship depends on regular contact. Never let contact with your key customers slip. At the start of the year you should plan how often you will call or visit your best customers during the year in order to maintain regular contact. Effective sales call planning is a key subject covered on most sales training courses.

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