Building Trust in Sales
Why do used car salespeople, unfairly or not, tend to get a bad reputation? Why do most people develop a bad taste towards telemarketers who call our personal number? What exactly causes us to not immediately trust some salespeople?
There are two main reasons for us to distrust a stereotypical used car salespeople and telemarketers:
We don’t know the product they are selling as well as they do. They have a clear advantage of information availability over us.
We doubt whether they will put our interest ahead of theirs. They might just be eyeing our hard-earned money.
The two main reasons for distrust can be applied to all sales professionals. What trust-building behaviors can you adopt to improve your sales efficiency?
There are many widely available and intuitive tips for building trust. For example, be honest, keep your commitments, be helpful, show people that you care, etc. Those are all correct but I also believe those are tips and tricks for general human beings to become good citizens. There is no doubt that successful salespeople should be good citizens as the baseline. So, keep doing what you already know as a good citizen.
However, the ultimate strategy of trust building is to become an expert in the field and use that expertise to consult with the buyers for their individual needs.
1. Becoming an expert.
Cognitive psychologist R. Glen Hass from the City University of New York has conducted decades of research to demonstrate that when the human brain perceives someone as an expert, the brain is far more likely to trust that person’s advice.
What that means to salespeople is two-fold.
First, you need to become an expert in that field, or at least of your product. There is no shortcut to gain expertise but to put dedicated effort into acquiring that specialized knowledge. There is also the passive osmosis of knowledge acquisition on the job by observing others and making mistakes. However, do not ever underestimate the power of preparation and studying, which will generate predictable returns in the long run - you gain more if you invest more time.
Second, you need to effectively show your buyers that you have that expertise to make good recommendations. Showing insights that are unique from your perspective is a great way to demonstrate your value as a resource for the buyers. That includes sending comments along with an article in the field, asking insightful questions, sharing latest industry news, making yourselves visible on social media, etc. If you have a history of success in helping clients solve their problems, communicate that to the prospective buyers.
2. Becoming a consultant.
The goal of a consultant is to provide valuable solutions. Consultants should spend the time in understanding the clients’ problems and be responsible for the results. This sets them apart from the used car salesperson selling you the first thing on the lot - once the paper is signed, any problem is your problem.
The ability to provide valuable, tailored solutions to a problem wins trust. It demonstrates to the buyer that you are here to work through the problems together rather than just money grabbing. In fact, good consultants and good salespeople share many of the same professional skills. They both know to ask insights questions, identify problems, communicate persuasively, and convince the buyers of their solutions.
In 1982, Arthur Turner has published a timeless article on Harvard Business Review, Consulting is More Than Giving Advice. 41 years have passed since Turner published that article and it’s remarkable that two groups of the 8 consulting purposes still remains true today:
Traditional purposes of consulting:
Providing information to a client
Solving a client’s problems
Making a diagnosis, which may necessitate redefinition of the problem
Making recommendations based on the diagnosis
Assisting with implementation of recommended solutions
Additional goals of consulting:
Building a consensus and commitment around corrective action
Facilitating client learning—that is, teaching clients how to resolve similar problems in the future
Permanently improving organizational effectiveness
If we look at the 8 purposes from the perspective of a sales profession, the traditional purposes are fundamental B2B sales activities, and the additional goals represent the higher motives of executives of the buyer organizations.
I strongly suggest any ambitious salespeople to read Turner’s article where he has explained in length on how to expand and improve on each of the 8 purposes. We will not repeat them here but I assure you that you’ll find a lot of shared topics we also described in our other blog posts, such as mapping internal stakeholders, asking insightful questions during diagnosis, etc.
To become an outstanding salesperson that instantly gains trust from strangers is not a simple task but definitely possible with hard work and practice. Becoming an expert takes time to study the subject matter, and becoming a valuable problem solver requires practice, reflection and feedback.
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