Every sales rep on the sales team should be aligned to the same end goal – closing more deals. Sometimes, however, new prospects will leave the sales cycle because they feel a lack of trust.
Whether it’s an over-ambitious (or poorly educated) sales rep, or the prospect’s struggle to find a straight answer, or simply your choice of company colors, something didn’t feel right, and the result is a lost sale.
While you can’t please everyone all of the time, there are steps you can take to make sure you come across as dependable, reliable, and trustworthy. The following strategies can help.
1. Clearly Demonstrate your Credibility
Because you have a business, potential customers expect you to be competent. This is a given in the B2B space. Likely your competitors have a level of credibility too, so to set yourself apart, you’ll need to go the extra mile.
Preparation is key. A deep understanding of your prospect’s needs, problems, and all the alternative solutions to their most pressing challenges will foster a sense of trust.
Dig deep. Instead of using generic or vague messages, probe into the details, and show how your brand meets their immediate needs. Arm your sales team with the relevant facts, and equip them with the right technology to make them an expert on the customer’s business.
2. Be Transparent
Never hide important facts. Play open cards with your prospect. A surprise further down the line will harm your reputation, and erode the trust you’ve built.
Transparency should include your pricing, Web content, customer feedback (not only the glowing reviews), and also the scope and range of your product and brand.
3. Provide Social Proof
Clients make snap judgements about your company’s worth based on the available information. Make sure that testimonials, social links, certifications and symbols of trust are visible throughout your campaigns and digital presence.
4. Show Empathy
Customers don’t like to feel pressured to make a purchase decision. Instead, if you come across as having the desire to help, solve problems, provide assistance and guidance, you will foster trust.
If prospects can relate to you, half the battle is won. This way a two-way dialogue is opened, and your prospect feels more comfortable about the buying process – after all, emotions play a huge role in sales. If you nurture the right feelings in prospects, trust will naturally set its course.
5. Be Consistent
Your consistency has a major impact on building or destroying customer trust.
A 2014 McKinsey study clearly pointed to the benefits of consistency in marketing. They showed that “maximizing satisfaction with customer journeys has the potential not only to increase customer satisfaction by 20% but also to lift revenue by up to 15% while lowering the cost of serving customers by as much as 20%.”
Prospects who are interested in your brand should feel that they are in safe hands right from the get-go. They should feel that you’re credible, transparent, consistent, trusted by others – and above all, that you consistently deliver on your word.
How successful are you at enticing trust with your audiences? Perhaps sales enablement can help you get there.