Trust is one of the most important factors in maintaining a successful relationship with your customers. It can boost sales, give your company an edge over the competition, but above all – it is the driving force behind brand loyalty.
The problem is, brand-customer trust cannot be established with the press of a button. With all the spam and phishing scams floating around, how do you let your audience know they can feel secure and comfortable doing business with you?
What is the Definition of Trust Based Relationship Selling?
Trust-Based Selling, as coined by Charles H. Green, emphasizes building and maintaining trust with customers as a cornerstone of successful sales strategies. Trust-Based Selling advocates for a customer-centric approach where trust is cultivated through understanding, collaboration, and genuine care for the customer’s best interests.
7 Steps to Improve Trust
There’s more to trust-based relationship selling than simply telling your customers directly that they can count on you. There are a number of non-verbal signals you can send to your users to let them know they can do business with you with confidence. Here are some other trust signals to keep in mind:
1. Improve your security
Trust comes largely from the feeling of safety. This does not change when it comes to brand-customer relationships. So your website should convey trust from the very first second.
When people arrive at a website, they will scan and skim to see if they are in the right place and to see if anything looks untoward.
These days a non-negotiable element is having a secure connection (https), which means you’ve taken some effort to provide your customers with a service they can trust. Without this, anti-virus software will often flag the site as insecure and recommend that the visitor doesn’t proceeed. Now can you imagine anything more likely to destroy trust than a warning from your anti-virus?
But you can also signal trust by prominently displaying security badges or trust seals, ISO or Better Business Bureau certificates etc.
2. Professional Website Design
Nothing erodes users’ trust like an amateurish website. Some inhouse built referral program solutions run the risk of falling into this category by not looking professional or simply being out-of-date.
3. White label
When you click through to a website expecting to see a familiar brand and the product you wanted to buy and you see a different brand and product altogether, you’re likely to think there’s something fishy going on, or at least think that you clicked the wrong page. That’s why, when it comes to a landing page on your website, you should show the visitor what they expected to see.
In the context of a referral program, that means having a fully white label site to maintain the trust between the brand and customer, and you should not take them to a supplier’s site or a site full of supplier logos and branding.
4. Clear, Legible Copy
An overly complex or confusing website can damage your trust-based relationship selling prospects. It’s also important that your quality copy doesn’t contain any spelling or factual errors, which may negatively impact your users’ perception of trust.
This may seem obvious, but it’s vital to employ copy written (and edited) by someone thoroughly fluent in the content language. Unusual sentence structure, syntax and poor word choice can be a red flag to consumers. This applies not only to language in the traditional sense (like English or Spanish) but also to the tone of language of your business and referrals.
Ideally, you’d research your customers and write in their language, which implies that you understand their issues and empathize.
5. A Believable Offer
It’s unlikely you’ll run the risk of hitting this particular speed bump, but the adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” definitely holds. Beware of the possibility that offering an extremely rich reward, relative to the product or service you’re selling, will make customers suspect you’re pulling a fast one.
6. Only Ask For What You Need
Trust-based relationship selling is not based on collecting as much information as possible about your users. Your site should not ask for any more information than what is necessary for your program to operate. That means you should scrutinize each field in your forms and ask ‘do you really need to ask this?’. If not, remove it.
Never, ever, ask for personal or sensitive information. I doubt many people would type their social security number in a web form and, if they would, they shouldn’t be. There are hefty compliance requirements for capturing and storing sensitive customer information as well.
7. Use Social Proof
Having credible social proof that you have many happy customers is critical to increasing trust. These can be reviews, testimonials and case studies, as well as simple call outs such as ‘one million customers served.’
8. Provide a Means of Contact
If a customer doesn’t see any way to contact you with their questions or concerns, it’s another red flag that you might not be trustworthy. Ensure your site offers an obvious and clear path for users to get in touch with you and that you display an address and phone number.
Letting your customers know they can put their faith in you can offer huge benefits to your business. Trust-based relationship selling can increase sales and referrals and help build a lasting relationship with your users.
Trust Based Selling Examples
We’ve looked at, the trust based selling definition, and steps you can take to improve your trust with your customers, but how about withing the sales process? A trust based sales process may kick of a very fruitful customer relationship. Here are a few examples of trust based selling and trust based sales communication techniques you may want to understand and employ in your sales process:
Don’t beat around the bush
Trust is the cornerstone of any successful relationship. It’s what allows you to have open, candid conversations with your clients, to tackle problems head-on, and to deliver real solutions. Building trust early in the relationship makes clients more likely to choose you over your competitors, not just because of your product or service, but because they believe in you and your integrity.
Speaking honestly pricing
Being upfront about potential challenges, like saying, “Our prices are going to be higher than other options, and here’s why…” early in the conversation can be a game-changer. This kind of transparency builds trust and opens the door to explain the added value you bring, justifying why your price is higher. Those who shy away from addressing price differences often find themselves losing deals because they never clarified why their higher price is worth it and how it benefits the client in the long run.
Understanding the challenge of change
Legacy sales approaches often make the process sound simple: just buy our solution, and you’ll see results. But the truth is, change can be challenging and comes with a learning curve. Being upfront about this can set realistic expectations and build trust. For example, saying, “We usually get things right on the third or fourth try; there’s always a learning curve,” can reassure clients that you are honest and reliable. Admitting that there will be challenges shows that you’re committed to working through them together, which can strengthen the partnership.
Hear from Jacob Tice, Senior Marketing Specialist at Trupanion why they work with trusted hospital partners and our veterinarians to get them to recommend the brand to pet owners:
Jacob Tice: "I'll say that a lot of our marketing efforts are actually directed towards our hospital partners and our veterinarians for largely the same reason. If that testimonial is coming to you from an expert that you trust, from the doctor who's been taking care of your pet for their entire life, and you bring in a new puppy, and they say, "You need to get Trupanion for this dog."
That's a voice you're going to trust. That's a voice you're going to listen to. And rightly so.
So we focus in our marketing efforts on fostering those really strong positive relationships with our hospitals and clinics with the veterinarians and their staff in those hospitals and clinics to really have them be our advocates on the ground in the moment speaking to clients who trust them and patients who have
been working with them for years.
We're in the business of saving pets. Our ideal client is someone who has has just adopted their their puppy or kitten. They're bringing them in for that first examination with their vet. And the vet says, "Hey, while you're here, you got to enroll with Trupanion."
See the full video here.
Have trusted third parties advocate on your behalf
Rather than try and convince potential customers yourself, your message can be much more credible when it is delivered by a trusted and independent third party, like a doctor or veterinarian, for example. You can increase trust in your businesses by identifying and fostering relationships with such people or organizations.
A lot of our marketing efforts are actually directed towards our hospital partners and our veterinarians. If that testimonial is coming to you from an expert that you trust, from the doctor who’s been taking care of your pet for their entire life, and you bring in a new puppy, and they say, ‘You need to get Trupanion for this dog.’ That’s a voice you’re going to trust. That’s a voice you’re going to listen to. And rightly so.
Jacob Tice, Senior Marketing Specialist – Trupanion
Don’t go bashing competitors
In sales, it’s tempting to indulge in negativity when a client complains about a competitor. However, mature sales professionals understand that badmouthing the competition can backfire. Trust-based selling means acknowledging the strengths of your competitors when appropriate. Saying, “There are many good companies in our industry, and they all strive to do their best,” shows respect and professionalism. It also positions you as a trustworthy advisor who is more focused on finding the best solution for the client, even if it means recommending another provider.
Maintaining integrity
Effective discovery isn’t just about understanding a client’s needs; it’s about having the courage to highlight what the client might need to change to achieve better results. Many clients may think that simply switching providers is all they need to do. However, real improvement often requires changes on their part as well. Successful salespeople aren’t afraid to say things like, “You won’t achieve your desired results at your current investment level,” or, “Your management practices are impacting your employee retention.” It’s about having honest conversations, even if it means risking the sale, because integrity builds long-term trust.
Do your users view you as trustworthy? Did you know that 88% of people will trust recommendations about your brand when they come from family and friends? Contact us today to learn how to gain valuable leads without breaking your marketing budget.