Clients and prospects are in search of trust in their business relationships but building trust and credibility does not happen overnight. To cultivate trust, you need to be intentional, and be open with clients and prospects.
Building Trust With Care
So how do you build trust with clients? First, you need to care about them. Obviously, your clients care about your knowledge, expertise, and accomplishments. However, they care even more about the level of concern you have for them. Successful trust building hinges on four actions: engaging, listening, framing, and committing.
Engaging clients and prospects occur when you show genuine concern and interest in their business and its problems. Be sincere and maintain good eye contact, which signifies openness and honesty, and a body posture which shows your attitude toward them. By the same token, you want to be aware of your client’s or prospect’s eye contact and body language.
Listening with understanding and empathy is possible if you think client focus first, what is in it for them. Let the client tell her story. Put yourself in her shoes when you listen to her business concerns, purpose, vision, and desires. Show approval or understanding by nodding your head and smiling during the conversation. Separate the process of taking in information from the process of judging it. Just suspend your judgment and focus on the client.
Framing what the client or prospect has said is the third action in trust building. Make sure you have formed an accurate understanding of his problems and concerns. Confirm what you think you heard by asking open-ended questions such as, “tell me more about that?” or “Help me to understand the major production problems you are experiencing” After you have clarified the problems, start to frame them in order of importance. By identifying the areas in which you can help the client, you offer him clarity in his own mind and continue to build his trust.
Committing is the final action for developing the trust factor. Communicate enthusiastically your plan of action for solving the client’s problems. Help the client see what it will take to achieve the end result. Presumably, what you have said up to this point has been important, but what you do now “how you commit” is even more important. Remember the old adage “Action speaks louder than words.” Demonstrate that you want this client’s business and you want it long term. Complete assignments and projects on budget and on time. Then follow up with clients periodically to see how your partnership is faring.
The trust factor can be realized once we understand these components of trust and incorporate them in our daily lives.
In the final analysis, trust stems from keeping our word. If we say we will be there for our clients, then we should honor that commitment by being there. Trust results from putting the client’s best interest before our own, from being dependable, from being open and forthcoming with relevant information. It is impossible to overestimate the power of the trust factor in our professional lives. Truly, trust is the basis of all enduring, long-term business relationships.
