Establishing Trust in the Sales Process

Establishing Trust in the Sales Process Establishing trust comes through integrity, purpose and your values commitment. For this to happen, there are certain characteristics and skills that the top sales professional must possess for trust to occur with the client.

Establishing Trust in the Sales Process Establishing trust comes through integrity, purpose and your values commitment. For this to happen, there are certain characteristics and skills that the top sales professional must possess for trust to occur with the client. By having complete trust, your sales closing ratio will increase and more referrals will come your way. The top sales professionals are great listeners and ask well thought of questions. By learning the art of listening shows the customer that you care. Trusted sales professionals understand that God gave each of us two ears and one mouth so they should listen more than speak. When they speak, it is to reinforce or ask questions to clarify their response.

They have learned the art of conversation and never interrupt the client till they finish their thoughts. They have good rapport with clients. They establish deeper and broader conversations. They take the time to listen, thus the potential client appreciates the ability to express themselves and not feel that they are being rushed into a decision. Top professionals manage client expectations up front and never give false promises to the client. They understand that they must keep even the smallest commitments. If you don't know something, then you admit it and get back to the client. Don't ever wing and answer.

You will only have to backtrack later on for this. By not having all of the answers upfront will only enhance your credibility with the client. If you can?t be trusted with the smallest details, what will happen when the critical issues come along. Top professionals never talk poorly about other clients, share gossip or talk negatively about their competition. The trusting sales professional knows his products and services better than anyone in his field. They block time to increase their knowledge along with knowing what their competition offers. For the successful sales professional, you have to do your homework to ?ace? high client conversions. For high trust to occur, you must have consistent quality service. Putting your service guarantee in writing provides the guarantee of both your word and the service you promise. Assurance comes from integrity and personal commitment. This should be the desire of all professionals to be consistent in their professionalism and services.

Integrity is when you adhere to a set of ethics and values and it is a major quality of consistent behavior. This value focused, integrity-based sales process builds, identifies and develops the customer's needs. Buyers feel the sales person is not just interested in selling their product, but truly interested in understanding and fulfilling their needs. Buyers have more confidence in the sales representatives and are more willing to make long-term business commitments. By creating trust from the presale process through closing the transaction, you will create customer loyalty and more referrals. Loyal clients are the best referral partners because they've already went through the sales process with you and feel comfortable trusting you with their friends, family and business relationships.

Loyal clients know that when they refer prospects to you, that you understand that they are trusting you with these relationships and know that their referrals will receive the same treatment as they've received. Hopefully, you meet every characteristic listed in this article. Learning from past mistakes myself, I've realized that winging answers, rushing through the interview and sales process has only hurt me in the long run. Not only did I not get the transaction, but I also didn't get future business and referrals. Never let down your guard when it comes to integrity, your values and your honor with your clients.

Trust is what the client is looking for, and you need to deliver full trust with every sales appointment. Tom Ninness is Vice President/Regional Production Manager for Cherry Creek Mortgage in Denver, CO. He is also the President of Summit Champions, Inc. and creator of the "The 90 Day Journey to Your Sales Success", a powerful 90 day action plan for the sales professional. Learn more about The Journey and Summit Champions, at www.90dayjourney.com, www.summitchampions.com or contact Tom at [email protected] Office: 303-840-0753