Are You Using Trust-Based Selling?

For many advisors, a certain picture appears in their mind when the word “trust” is talked about in acquiring new clients.

Everyone’s polite, rapport is flowing in both directions, the sale feels like it’s going to happen.

This is the idyllic picture that’s conjured in most advisor’s minds, when the words “trust-based selling” comes to mind.

The “know, like and trust” sales model has been around for decades, and many advisors were taught to think:

“Well, I’m friendly, articulate, and well presented… I know how to strike up conversation but I’m also respectful… I always make sure to give value in my sales meetings and in all of my follow–ups, and I never broach the topic of the sale directly. Sure, I know how to build trust with my prospects”.

But the problem is that this is not the kind of trust that works in a sales setting, in a commoditized economy.

You could say it’s more of a social trust, than a business trust.

Social trust is what you receive from people when you fit the criteria of what general society considers to be normal.

It’s the social connection you have with the people in meeting their expectations for how a trustworthy advisor, ought to look, speak, and behave.

Social trust is the “dress code” that gets you an initial meeting, but it can often be perceived as superficial.

Business trust, which you need to project and build with every new prospect, is much deeper and different.

You see, there’s social trust and then there’s business trust, and although they share the same word, they mean two very different things.

The social version of trust (being sociable, conversational, building rapport, etc) has crept into the advisor sales process believing that conveying these qualities is what leads people to trust them.

The underlying assumption is that people only do business with people they like.

That might be true to in a social setting, in the sales process these assumptions are often false.

Does your mechanic, doctor, or plumber spend time being conversational and trying to get to know you?

And is that the basis by which you decide to hire them?

Of course not.

Your primary motivation for hiring them is to perform a specific task, which is to fix a problem that you can’t fix yourself.

Generally speaking, you don’t need to like them on a social basis.

Their ability to solve your problem should go without saying, and you just want to make the decision that you can trust them to solve it for you.

That’s all.

So, we can say that in a business context, the one people trust, is not the one they most like, but the one who can accurately pinpoint their problem, clarify the cause, and specify what needs to be done to solve it.

Questions about skill and expertise aren’t a factor – they’re taken on “good faith” because of this trust.

This is what business trust is all about.

Your prospect’s decision to hire you is based on feeling reassured that you understand their problem better than they do, because you can clarify and simplify it in ways they could never articulate to themselves.

In short, business trust is 100% about your prospect and their issue, and 0% about them liking you at a social level, as a peer.

If you’re an advisor, wondering why many your qualified prospects who come to you — who show interest in what you have to say – but ultimately say to you: “I’d like to think about it…” — then it could be that you’re still trying to build social trust, instead of business trust.

To learn more about building business trust that creates new paying clients, order your complimentary books and consultation below.