Trust is an essential part of the sales process. Most people will not buy from an individual or a company that they don’t trust; the level of trust a client has for you directly affects their attitude towards a product. Unfortunately, unless you come from a large company that already has a great reputation for being trustworthy any interaction you start will begin with a low level of trust, which will mean a sale is unlikely. You have to build more trust with prospects first.

If you want that potential client to become a sale you need to move them from a low level of trust to a high level of trust before trying to close the deal. This is an incredibly important concept because if you try to close the deal before you’ve built up a high level of trust you’ll probably damage your chances: you’ll come across as someone just looking for a quick sale who isn’t interested in what is best for their company. To avoid this let’s look at three ways you can build more trust with prospects:

1) Build more trust with prospects by being the expert

Your credibility as an expert within your field is an important step to building trust. The more you know and understand about how your client’s business and industry works and what problems they are facing the better you are able to show them how you can help them. You should also know your products and your competitor’s products better than the prospect so you can give them guidance on why your product is the best solution. You don’t have to know everything to be the expert, if you don’t know something commit to finding out for the client and get back to them quickly – this will show you are both reliable and helpful and will build more trust with prospects.

2) Build more trust with prospects by being honest

Honesty is always the best policy when trying to build more trust with prospects. If you don’t know something you should admit it, and if your product perhaps has some flaws in one area let them know. If after talking to your client and finding out their needs it emerges that your product will not help them with what they need – tell them! This will build trust and save valuable time for both you and the prospect. In the future when they are looking for something that you provide they may well come back to you and look to make a purchase because you have established yourself as a trustworthy individual.

3) Build more trust with prospects by talking less and listening more

Most sales people will talk and talk and talk when they really should be listening to build more trust with prospects. When you first meet with a client, you should be aiming to find out as much about them and their company as possible. Rather than tell them all about your product and how amazing it is try to find out about their business and what challenges they are facing. The more you know about them the more you can help them – and the more you help them the more you’ll build trust. Taking notes and asking follow-up questions will show your prospect that you are interested in them, which will in turn build trust. At the end of the meeting, send them a follow-up email with your notes typed up to check that you’ve understood their situation.

Using these three pointers, you should be able to build more trust with prospects but these techniques are just the beginning. Every part of your attitude and character will either build more trust with prospects or it will reduce trust. You must constantly work hard to increase your professionalism, knowledge and positive attitude to ensure you are a trustworthy individual that people would like to purchase from.