Hi, this is Ben Lai from Sales Ethos. This is Part Three of the series, How to Sell to Modern Buyers. Now, buyers are more sceptical than ever before. After being bombarded by sales and marketing messages through emails, through phone calls, people have created walls of resistance to make sure that they protect themselves from the dodgy sales people. So how do you go about overcoming this and build trust in modern day sales? Today, we’ll explore three ideas that will help you with that.
How to Build Trust in Modern Day Sales #1: Establish Likeness
Firstly, you need to establish likeness with the other person. Finding things in common with your prospects will help them to understand that you are familiar and that you are trustworthy. The greatest example I can think of this is when we travel overseas, let’s just say to Thailand or to Bali, where Aussies like to go on holiday. When you see other Aussies, you immediately establish a rapport with them. It’s easy to talk to them, ask them oh whereabouts in Australia they live. You have things to talk about.
Similarly, when you are speaking to prospects in the modern selling arena, finding things that you have in common, such as … even things that are not business related such as the footy team or having children, taking an interest in these things helps to create a rapport with the other person and increase their trust in you and decrease the resistance.
How to Build Trust in Modern Day Sales #2: Increase Personal Credibility
The second thing that you can do to increase your trust with prospects is to increase your personal credibility. Now, this is a huge area. There are lots of different things that can increase your credibility. Knowing your product inside out, knowing your industry really well certainly helps, but it also helps to conduct yourself in a certain way. A credible person does not speak rapidly. They speak slowly and intentionally. Further, they have a certain body posture. Finally, they stand up straight with their shoulders back and their chest out. These are signs, albeit very small ones, that you are a person who is confident and credible.
Now, credibility, most importantly, comes from reliability. If you’re the type of person that keeps your promises, that you’ll keep your word. You call when you say you will and you deliver as promised, that is a huge credibility builder.
Before I go into the third point, quick note for those of you to whom sales people report to. If you’re a sales manager or a director of the company, feel free to visit the link below to register for a complementary one-hour consultation where we will solve one of your major challenges that you are facing right now. Feel free to visit the link below, fill in your details, and we’ll coordinate a time to meet.
How to Build Trust in Modern Day Sales #3: Reduce Self-Orientation
The third thing that you can do to sell to modern buyers and to increase your trust is to reduce your self-orientation. What I mean by this it to put your personal agenda aside so that the other person understands you are doing this for their benefits. This is probably the greatest of the three criteria that we have talked about. If you can put aside your personal sales commission, if you can put aside the fact that you want to sell a product and really focus in on the other person and how your product is going to help them, that is biggest credibility builder of all.
Paradoxically, when you recommend a competitor’s product above yours, this is a huge credibility builder. You would of course only do this in a situation where the competitor would serve the client better, but this kind of mentality will help to build that trust, and when they need something in the future that you provide best, guess who they’re going to call?
Conclusion
So there you have it. Have something in … Find things in common with the person. Increase your personal credibility by knowing your stuff and by conducting yourself in a way that is credible. Finally, reduce your personal agenda so that people understand that you’re doing this for them.
Feel free to comment below what do you think. What are some of the things that you do to build trust with your clients? Leave a comment below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and remember that integrity plus skills equals success.
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