As professional sales people, you know how difficult it can be to gain the trust and confidence of your customers. It is up to you to develop that good relationship and to maintain it. How well you do in sales often depends upon your sales reputation.  How clients and prospects perceive you depends upon how trust worthy, dependable and reliable they believe you to be.

These days it seems harder than ever to develop a great sales reputation. In times of frequent corporate and political scandals, it is hard work to make sure that you can stand out from the crowd as a stand up, trust worthy individual. It is hard but it is not impossible. To build a great sales reputation, you need to build your credibility.

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Henry Ford

One of the first steps of developing a great sales reputation is to focus on good customer service. Always work to have your service stand head and shoulders above your competition. If you focus on providing the best service and you follow through with it, your customers will notice. Intending to provide service and actually providing service is the difference between building a great sales reputation and just blending in with the crowd. In addition to this, always try to do more than what people expect from you. Look to go beyond the minimum required to service a customer and, whether it is one of your more or less lucrative clients, always offer more than they expect.

“Reputation is an interpretation, more or less accurate, of character.” Austin O’Malley

To build a solid sales reputation, your customers must be able to trust you.  In order to trust you, you must always be honest and forthcoming with information. Always keep your word. Whether you are talking about a time line,delivery costs, or anything else, make sure that what you say is true and is understood by your customer. Your word should be as good as gold. If you are at a point where your customers trust your word, you have developed a great sales reputation.

Also, never make derogatory remarks about other customers or your competition. Be a positive force and be positive about others. Anything negative said about others always reflects negatively on the speaker. Even if provoked, always remain positive.

“There are two modes of establishing our reputation; to be praised by honest men, or to be abused by rogues.” Charles C. Colton

There are two things that you want to make sure you always do when trying to develop a strong sales reputation. First, always maintain your professionalism. This means dressing professionally and always behaving in a professional manner when with a client. You can chat and make small talk, but in the end, you are there to do business and your customer wants to know that they can rely on your professionalism.

The second thing to remember is to always look for ways to improve. Sales people who have an outstanding sales reputation typically look for information about what they could be doing better. Welcome all feedback whether it is positive or critical of you. You need to know what you are doing well and, if there is something you need to be doing better, you need to make improvements in that area.

“A good name is more desirable than great riches: to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” Proverbs

As you continue to develop a great sales reputation you will see it pay off. Customers will not only want to continue to do business with you, they are far more likely to make referrals on your behalf. A good sales reputation helps your standing in your sales community and that will lead to increased sales for you.