The Trust Equation in Sales: How to Become a Trusted Advisor

It should come as no surprise that in order to succeed in sales, you must earn people's TRUST. Being trustworthy is essential not only for ensuring a successful sales outcome, but for establishing human connections in general.

Our favorite trust formula is the trust equation, created by David H. Maister & Charles H. Green and explained in detail in the book "The Trusted Advisor, 2000".

By using the trust equation in sales, you will find out that there is in fact an actionable way, available to everyone, to improve trustworthiness, gaining an advantage in this competitive business field.

3 top reasons why Trust is important in sales?

Trust is considered the foundation of solid interpersonal and economic relationships. Take a look at the 3 top reasons for that:

1. Trust creates repeat business

Consumers indicate that they would likely do business with a company again if it is represented by a trustworthy salesperson.

2. Trust facilitates recovery

Occasionally, mistakes happen and when they do, consumers are more willing to forgive a single bad experience from a business or a salesperson when they trust them.

3. Trust fosters loyalty and drives Word of Mouth

Happy, trusting consumers are more likely to not only stay loyal but also refer a friend or family member, increasing your business productivity.

Trust is equal to... Trust equation model explained

The Trust Equation measures trustworthiness using four objective variables:
· Credibility
· Reliability
· Intimacy
· Self-orientation

Credibility, Reliability and Intimacy, in the trust formula, enhance a person's trustworthiness. Self-orientation is the factor that diminishes the other three variables, causing a decrease in the general outcome of the trust equation.

Breaking down the Trust Formula: Practical tools on utilizing the Trust equation in Sales

Simple practical tools to help you build your Credibility

It has been demonstrated that humans fear the unknown. According to psychological research, humans enjoy anticipating the outcomes of situations. Just think for a second yourself falling; we fear falling because we do not know how it will conclude. Establishing credibility is essential for achieving comfort.

Credibility is dependent upon our knowledge and the words we use. Can we support our statements with knowledge and experience? Considering this, one way to establish credibility is to provide your prospect or customer with hard data regarding results. So that they can rely on you, offer them useful advice and information. Credibility decreases the fear that humans are predisposed to experience in unfamiliar situations.

3 actions to enhance your Reliability

While credibility is based mostly on data, reliability relates to our actions. Do we do what we said we would do? Do we complete a task when we said we would and with the quality we promised?

Reliability in the trust equation model is simply enhanced by honoring our commitments using three roads:
1. Increase our delivery to guarantee that we always meet our obligations
2. Modify our commitments by learning to say “no” more effectively, so that we only commit to things that we can actually deliver on
3. And please, DO NOT FORGET, the golden rule of reliability is consistency. People are significantly more likely to have faith in you if your behavior is consistent over time.

Taking advantage of Intimacy in sales process

In the context of trust, intimacy relates to how confident we feel in disclosing personal information, particularly about our doubts and insecurities. Connecting emotionally to the other person. It is an odd fact of human nature that the more we believe we know about someone, or "who they really are" the more trustworthy we perceive them to be.

We can achieve high levels of intimacy by unlocking empathy in sales using 4 essential steps:
1. Put yourself in the other person's shoes
2. Ask questions that exhibit genuine curiosity
3. Listen, listen, listen oh! and listen
4. Identify difficulties and provide solutions

Self-orientation: The variable that we don't trust and how to tame it

Self-orientation in the trust equation model refers to the degree to which our interests align with those of others. Self-centered individuals are difficult to trust because they are more interested in themselves. Thus, in the equation, self-orientation decreases trust. We must decrease our self-focus to increase our trustworthiness.

In certain situations, a perception of low self-orientation is sufficient to establish trust. This may apply to one-time transactions that do not reoccur. Nonetheless, perception alone will not suffice for recurring relationships. Instead, you must alter your self-interest level. This can be achieved:

a. Through goal and objective alignment in the workplace, whereby an individual's self-interest is aligned with that of their customer base.
b. Through various aspects of personal development and by gaining an appreciation for the correlation between helping others, personal happiness, and well-being.

Trust is equal to... Sales

The process of gaining someone's trust and becoming a trusted advisor is not easy, but if you understand and follow this model and the practical tools discussed, you can be perceived as considerably more trustworthy.

Our last piece of advice, try to practice the preceding under the prism of authenticity. "Fake it till you make it" is out of the question when it comes to trust. Be you, be original and trust the equation.