Trust Based Selling – Your Ultimate Guide
In this article, we’ll explore the premise of trust based selling, as well as how to build trust with your potential clients during your sales conversations, and before you present your offer or solution.
So, what makes trust based selling different to the older models of selling?
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What is trust based selling?
- Behaviours that’ll break trust
- The six traits you’ll need
Trust Based Selling – Your Ultimate Guide
What Is A Trust Based Selling?
Trust based selling is positioning yourself in a way with your potential clients, that they trust your advice when you prescribe an offer or solution to their pain points and issues.
As per Hub Spot, there are six dimensions to trust based selling:
- Integrity: You’re received as reliable, dependable and trustworthy
- Competency: You can deliver on what you say you can
- Recognition: You treat them as a person, rather than a number
- Proactivity: You genuinely care about their best interests
- Savvy: You show empathy and understand their issues
- Chemistry: You and your potential clients/ clients ‘click’, and get along well
Embodying these principles will help you with trust based selling; which in turn will help both you and your clients.
What Hurts Trust Based Selling?
As much as it is important to learn how to go about using trust based selling; it is equally important to know what’ll damage your perception of being seen and treated as someone who can be trusted.
The first thing that’ll break trust, is going into a sales conversation with little to no understanding of your potentials client’s needs.
Your potential client will expect you to have done some homework, and at least ensure they’re qualified prior to meeting them. Failing to do so, won’t help your positioning as a trusted advisor.
Secondly, the next quick way to break trust and lose the sale is by presenting you product or service too early.
As per our article in Entrepreneur; many Sales Professionals make the mistake of doing something we call ‘premature presentation’.
This is when they present their product or service without deep diving into the following:
- Whether there’s an actual need
- Learning their pain points
- Finding out their desired outcome
Presenting before learning any of these vital ingredients will massively hurt your trust based selling efforts, because it’ll demonstrate that you’re there for a quick sale – rather than actually trying to solve their problems or issues.
Finally, they don’t know how to walk away from a sale.
Trust based selling means you’re confident and more than OK to tell their clients or potential clients when something won’t work, or if they won’t be the right fit.
You’ll quickly break trust if you try and close a sale or up sell something that you have no business offering a current or potential client.
The Six Traits Of Trust Based Selling
In order to carry out a trust based selling approach, there are six distinct traits you’ll need to learn, embody – and then build into your life so that they become guiding principles to follow.
Below is our list.
Integrity
The first on our trust based selling list, is that you have to operate with a high level of integrity; in which you serve your clients or potential clients with their interests in mind.
Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners operate with a short vision; they think about making a quick sale, even if it means selling something your potential client or clients don’t actually need.
People who used trust based selling know that they have to think about the long game, and they only will prescribe a solution if they truly know they’ll benefit from it, and that it’s something they need.
On integrity; a trusted advisor also knows that the relationship between them and their client is something to be cherished, and they’ll never speak out against them, or share things with others about them that they wouldn’t wish shared.
Integrity is an important principle to have in life, and one that separates a trusted advisor from a status quo salesperson.
Experience & Knowledge
Trusted based selling means you have to have the required knowledge of their subject, and that you have the experience to look at a situation or problem from multiple vantage points.
Furthermore, it’s also very beneficial when you can share knowledge and experience about other similar verticals to theirs and lean on similar industries to help them realise how they can borrow ideas from other places to work for them.
To practice trust based selling, we recommend that you learn your craft and subject in depth, as well as what other relatable industries and competitors are doing in their own businesses.
Consistency
A core principle of trust based selling is that you have to be consistent with your approach, as well as understand the importance of following frameworks for consistency.
For example; if they’re meeting with a new potential client, they would initially use a discovery call to qualify their potential clients, and then use a step by step sales process to learn if there’s an actual need to serve them.
They’re consistent with their planning, their finances, their internal procedures, and the way they approach and treat their clients.
Reliability
People who use trust based selling know that their word is their bond, and they will ensure they don’t break it.
One of the fundamental ingredients of a relationship, is trust.
A trusted advisor knows that by breaking trust by not being reliable or coming through for a potential client, that it’ll tarnish their reputation and make it difficult to come back from.
In sales; it’s important to only promise on something you know you can definitely deliver.
This way, you won’t be setting yourself up for failure, and can maintain being reliable for your clients.
Curiosity
People like people who like them; and people like people who ask questions to learn more about them.
People who follow trust based selling know to stay curious; they ask a lot of questions and have a genuine desire to learn about their client and their business, so that they can offer better solutions, and think about ways to enhance them and their business.
Staying curious will not only help you get more knowledge about your industry, but it also demonstrates empathy and shows that you care.
The Ability To Listen
Finally, to practice trust based selling – you have to be an excellent listener.
Most people listen to think about how they will respond.
A trusted advisor however will listen to be present, and truly digest and learn what it is their client is actually telling them.
They’ll get clarity before making assumptions and ask further probing questions to learn the underlying reasoning for their client’s viewpoint.
Trust based selling means that it’s not about being right; but more importantly, being present and actually hearing what people are saying.
Trust Based Selling – Final Thoughts
These traits will help you with your trust based selling approach, because they’re key principles you can implement into your everyday conversational strategy and sales efforts.
People who practice trust based selling generally have more success than your average salesperson, because they don’t look at people merely as numbers.
Behind the business – are people; people who want to be heard, cared about, and want a relationship with a specialist.
By positioning yourself in this way, you’ll be of better service to others around you, and you’ll be rewarded for it.
Want To Close Easier?
If you’re over inconsistent sales and want to learn a proven system to close easier, then check out our online sales training course, The 5% Sales Blueprint.
It’ll give you everything you need to close sales consistently, is self-paced, and highly affordable.
To learn more, click on the link directly below.
