All sales are based upon trust. Trust is established in many ways, but one particularly strong, early technique is to ask a buyer about his/her objectives then to repeat them, immediately, in summary form.
Let’s say we are selling banking services. We ask the prospect what her objectives are. She answers by emphasizing low risk and a relationship with someone local she can visit and talk to, among other things. When she finishes, we say, “Thank you Ms. Smith. So just to be clear, you want to place some money in a low-risk instrument at a local bank and establish a relationship with someone you can visit or phone on a regular basis that will be there for you. Is that accurate?” “Yes.”
This may sound simple but it has some profound psychological and emotional power to it.
- It shows we are listening, intently.
- It demonstrates that we respect her ideas and priorities.
- Hearing her ideas repeated out loud has a powerful emotional impact which helps to begin the bonding process including developing trust.
- We have just generated our first “yes,” and yeses beget more yeses.
Trust is a precious dynamic that is not developed with one, magic bullet . . . it is ultimately developed by consistently doing what we say we are going to do over time.
But prior to being hired, this is a technique we can use to signal to a prospect that we are focused on her . . . not our . . . needs, and that is the first step toward communicating that she can trust us as service and product providers.
