Selling Tips: How to Create Trust Early in The Sales Process
The best way to create trust when selling is . . . to stop selling! Your objective, early in the sales process, should be to establish trust - you do that with relevant rapport. Selling, too soon, actually breaks rapport!
Where selling breaks rapport, education actually builds it. The one thing that all your prospects are most interested in . . . is themselves. Specifically, their market, their industry, and how they compare.
Our new preacher's first sermon was entitled "Fishing with Strawberries". It goes like this: a sales trainer asked the attendees if they liked strawberries . . . all them agreed that they loved strawberries. He then asked "do any of you enjoy fishing?", again the vast majority agreed they loved fishing. "Why then", he asked, "don't you use strawberries as bait when you go fishing?" They replied, "because fish don't like strawberries, I do!" And so it is, your prospects don't like hearing about how great your company, product or services are - they are interested in their own company, industry & market. Fish with that which they are interested in - educate them on their market and industry.
This is the key to creating relevant rapport and creating trust . . . stop selling, start educating.
Read more about creating trust by reading the 3 Pillars of Persuasion.
