"Trust"
is the answer most practitioners give when asked, "Why do your
clients, centers and prospects do business with you?" Trust is
a good answer, but woefully incomplete if you do not know its nature
or how to develop it.
By definition, trust
is a firm belief in the honesty, reliability, credibility and integrity
of someone. It implies that the person trusted has a duty of care or
custody to the one who trusts. The buyer who trusts puts faith in the
advisor to act in the buyer's best interests, to be what the advisor
claims s/he is, and to be giving competent advice. Trusting an advisor
means putting stock in that person's advice. Trust is an action demonstrating
faith in another.
When a sale is made–a
transaction–the buyer is saying "I trust you and what you
are saying now." When a buyer becomes a client and seeks
additional advice beyond that given for the first few transactions,
the client is saying "I trust you still." Some advisors
have clients who trust them only. What dynamics lead to the trust
in these relationships?
The more similar
the people in a relationship, the more likely a trusting relationship
will develop and endure. Of all the similarities that can be
matched (style, language, manners, culture, income, residence, attitudes,
interests, values, etcetera) the most important is values. Matching
values does more to bind the professional–client relationship than
any other factor. Values are most easily seen in language. Language
is culture. Language is also words and style. The words you use and
the style in which you use them can create or inhibit the formation
of trust. After that, it is all a matter of doing what you say you will
do, on time, every time.
Relationships
are Two-way Connections
Advisors who refuse
to reveal themselves personally to clients, centers and prospects miss
the boat entirely. They do not give others the best opportunity to learn
to trust them as people, which means they earn less trust as advisors
than they can. Advisors are people. That's how most buyers see it. The
buyer who seeks cold objectivity and facts gets his advice from books
and tedious searches on the Internet. Buyers who seeks to be understood
and then be presented with suitable recommendations gets advice from
a person whom s/he trusts. Trust forms first from intuition. The first
–and best–intuitive perceptions come from assessing similarity
of values.
Mind your trust
factors. Take care with your language. Reveal yourself by discussing
your values. Not every person you meet is a prospect, but every prospect
you meet is a person who needs to trust you.
Cindi Lauper sang
it well in her hit "True Colors."
I see your true
colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow
© 1986 Denise
Barry Music and Billy Steinberg Music (ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved
