How to Earn the Trust of Your Prospects?

Every entrepreneur has to sell her products or services when she is starting off with business. Therefore, it is essential to know that trust is a major factor in winning your prospects over and converting them into buying clients. I have always said it repeatedly, people will not work with you if they do not trust you. Trust can only be earned and that takes more than just the realization of its absence. Does knowing the prospect enough and warming up towards him work well enough to build trust? No, there is more that needs to be done. Here is how the story goes.

Trust them first –

It is important to develop an understanding with your prospects. You have to consciously work on this. Understand the kind of person they are. Get to know their personality traits, their business flow and needs. Ensure them that you trust them and they may rely on you. You may even offer them advice, where suitable, to assure them you are dependable and they may trust you. You have to be genuinely concerned about their issues, and they should know it.

Build a relationship –

Every prospect is likely to be on the defensive when you are initiating communication. Technically they are not warm enough towards you to accept everything you are offering them in terms of information, attention and expectation. You need to work smart towards building quality relationship. You have to depend on the best of your social skills, empathy and emotional intelligence. Reveal to your prospects the sides that will help them to relate and connect with you, accept you as ‘a worthy to be with’ person. Evoke interest. Sharing stories works well here. People love listening to honest stories of real experiences and they help in finding common grounds. Credibility and trust start here, as you are becoming an approachable acquaintance: someone who carries relatable experiences up their sleeve.

Establish good credibility –

Proof of achievements build credibility. If we try to go deeper, actually revealing how your solutions have been useful for similar people can do the job. Allow your prospects to know you and get familiar with the strengths of the services and products. If you are hitting the first chords with a sales pitch, you are losing your prospects. They will go on the defensive and will not trust you as usually salesy people are expected to be exaggerators in many ways to win people over to buying their stuff. Avoid that! Credibility takes time to seep in. you have to allow that time. Your prospects are likely to go all in and try to search information about your brand or business. They are also likely to look for proof of the achievements you have revealed to them. Prepare for that well in advance through positive client testimonials, and impressive digital foot prints of valuable contents that speak high about your brand or business.

Create a fair momentum –

Do not expect your prospects to be in a hurry to buy from you. Create a fair momentum of communication with them. Keep in touch and yet do not push for a closure. Let them make their decisions and satisfy their own natural curiosity about you. However, remember communication flow is the key and you cannot afford to lose the flow. If you lose touch with people, they are likely not to consider you an option to purchase from. Moreover, the flow will support your ‘cause’. Many of my own prospects took months to make their decisions. Several went away after discussing their needs and returned after a year to close the deal. They felt they have witnessed enough proof of performance to ensure their brand is safer with me than any other company. I know it sounds like a very prolonged wait time but remember, the best way to win to let them know they are ones winning.

Offer social proof

Your social presence has to be powerful enough to advocate in the favor of solutions you provide. There has to be multiple credibility-oriented conversations at the core of social proof. This will build unshakable trust. Credibility-oriented conversations may include, for instance, your work in compliance with your mission statement, your success stories, your awards and certifications, and your social interaction with people who have benefited from your activities and services.

I have learned these facts through experience. There have been many prospects who could never trust us. That’s their choice. Remember, there will always be someone who would not be for you! At the same time, there will be many who would be yours because they believe in you and your did enough to ensure a fair level of trust is built. All the best! I wish you more success.