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Can I Trust You

Written by: Mark Tewart

Article Overview: Listen to what customers say and what they are trying to say. Listen to what customers really mean.

Can I Trust You

When you have a first encounter with a customer, he or she is usually
wondering one simple question. Can I trust you?

There are three stages of buying:
1. Character and trust
2. Emotion
3. Logic

I don¹t know that one stage is more important than the other but I do know
that the trust stage usually happens first. When you build a house and the
foundation is weak, no matter how nice a house you build it comes crumbling
down eventually. A sale is the same way. You can sell all you want. You can
create an emotional frenzy. You can justify emotions with logic and
reasoning but at the end if the customer has a twinge of doubt about you
they will pause and hesitate to complete the sale.

Usually when the customer stalls after showing all the right buying signs,
we blame the customer and create some unflattering names for him or her.
Here¹s a news flash: Most of the time it¹s your fault. It¹s not the
customer¹s job to trust you. It¹s not the customer¹s job to create a rapport
and a bond. It¹s not the customer¹s job.

Often, the customer comes in sold on your product and has a need and desire
for it. They want to buy it. But when it gets to the end, one thing keeps
them from buying ­ fear. Fear of making a mistake. Your customers are human.
Customers have fears of making a mistake in buying the wrong vehicle,
getting the wrong price, getting the wrong information or having a bad
experience.

To sell more, you must allow the customer to buy. To buy a customer needs a
path without obstacles and doubt. To remove the customer¹s doubts and fear
you must practice risk aversion and reversal.

Sales training has focused primarily on handling objections and other
reactive selling approaches. Practicing risk aversion is a proactive
approach to selling that addresses common fears up front and removes them
before they become an obstacle. Fifteen minutes spent on proactive risk
aversion can eliminate two hours of reactive objection handling.

Take a pencil and paper and write down all the common fears of your
customers and common objections you receive. Write down the silent
objections you don¹t get but you know are really there. No matter what you
sell, it¹s the same objections over and over. It doesn¹t take that much to
be aware of the objections, to be prepared to proactively eliminate them and
even answer them if they still come up.

Listen to what customers say and what they are trying to say. Listen to what
customers really mean. And, listen to what customers aren¹t saying but
intuitively you know they are thinking. Increasing your intuitive ability is
a major step in becoming a master sales person. Watch your customer¹s body
language. You don¹t need a course to teach you what people are thinking by
their body language. You simply need to observe, think and feel as they do.
TLC ­ Think Like a Customer.

Remember, that trust comes before money.

Related Articles
  A Tryst with Trust
  Trust and Respect
  5 pillars of instant Trust
  Trust Comes First
  The Power of Trust

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vigilance Trust An ability to DELEGATE
Re: Bad credit guaranteed home loan? - Lending money to people with bad credit was one of the biggest things that put our economy under and many lenders out of business. I'd say if you have this opportunity take it now before it goes away. Trust me, if there are any of these programs left (and don't expect a low interest rate if your credit is bad) they won't be around for ever. At ANY interest rate.
Re: How do you earn trust with an online business? - Add VALUE to your target market. How? Well depends. If your business can start by Educating the target market about how your product or Service can add value to their lives. This can be done via Video (hot right now), basic text, audio etc. I've had a lot of success with Video and am using it primarily as a lead generation tool. If done right your Content can add Value and add to your bottom line at the same time while building Trust.
Re: Do Your Prospects / Customers Trust You? - This is so true. In the software business, if you don't earn their trust in the first few days they start implementing it, they tend to just give up on using it at all.....even if they may have lost a lot of money. With software, silly glitches can have a huge bearing on your newer clients. Especially if they are brand new to software in general. The more established users understand that when you are constantly building and developing the software, there are going to be glitches along the way. Trust is a must!
Women's buying patterns - I'd like to know more about women's buying psychology - what makes them tick? - are they looking for an "experience"? If so, are there important parts of the experience that must exist? - how do you break past Trust barrier? - If you are selling a service what kind of support are women looking for? - do women buy a sampling first to "check out the waters" before they commit to a larger purchase? or do they jump in with both feet?


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