Trust Me on This - Gut Check by Jerry Hocutt

The most trusted man in America.

Who Do You Trust?

“In God We Trust”.

How many times in an interview or a speech do you hear the speaker invoke, “Trust me.” Why? What’s trust got to do with it?

We trust sports figures until we find out they’ve been boosting more than their batting average. Politicians lose trust when their hand is caught in the pockets of the lobbyists. Banks lose it when they create derivative products from out of thin air.

Selling trust is a challenge for salespeople. No matter how good your service, product, or price, if the trust isn’t there, no one’s buying. Ever have your cable provider instantly cut your Internet price in half because they’re afraid you might jump to the competitor? Why didn’t they do that before you had to threat to leave? Where’s the trust?

Trust. Easy to lose. Difficult to gain.

How do you get it? Lose it? Once it’s lost, can you ever get it back?

Why is trust necessary? To create belief and faith in someone? That the investment is safe? But how do the Bernie Madaoff’s of the world get trust from thousands? Did his investors want to believe that he could get consistent high returns on their investments when others couldn’t? You know their gut told them what their dad had repeated so often: “If it seems too good to be true....” Greed overrides trust to create belief. Or maybe the brain just clicks off, as psychologists show in the theory of “social proof”; i.e. if the crowd is doing it, it must be okay.

The scammers of the world, whether investment, sports, or politics, are looking for people who want to believe; people who don’t trust their gut. People who go along with the crowd.

Sometimes the hardest person to trust is yourself. But if you don’t, who will?

How is trust gained or lost when meeting a client for the first time? It could be in the handshake, eye contact, your voice, or maybe your posture. Salespeople invoke things to create trust. A client’s name. Statistics. Numbers. Accomplishments. Nothing wrong with that. As long as it’s all true. But trust is lost when salespeople confuse the client, are disingenuous, or fail to understand what the client is saying.

What’s the lesson? Forget selling your service, product, or price until you’ve sold the trust. Until it’s bought, the customer’s not buying.

Trust. You know when you have it – and when you don’t. Trust your gut. You know I’m right. Trust me on this.

About The Author:

© 2009 Jerry Hocutt. Read more articles by Jerry at his blog http://footinthedoor.squarespace.com/journal and listen to a free preview of his CD/MP3 audio program Cold Calling for Cowards® at http://www.footinthedoor.com/freepreview.html.