Trust seems to be a word that generates a lot of curiosity among participants in my trainings. Whatever profession you are in, if you want to get things done, sell an idea, product or service, a certain level of trust between you and your interlocutor is always required. It is a training topic that often raises the question: how can I/we become this trusted advisor?
When we zoom in on sales and consulting organisations, being seen as a trusted advisor is often a dream scenario. A good and trusted partnership with some key clients and, as a consequence, a stable revenue flow. Sometimes I use David Maister’s Trust Equation from his book The Trusted Advisor (2000) to ‘decipher the key ingredients of a trusted partnership. In his book, he explains that Credibility, Reliability and Intimacy are key ingredients for becoming this Trusted Advisor.
In the market we operate in today, let us assume that there are many competitors who are Credible, or in other words, know what they are talking about. They also show they are Reliable by keeping commitments and having a good track record. And clients feel comfortable sharing information with them (Intimacy). In the overcrowded and competitive markets we are operating in today, I think we all have examples of competitors with these components. That automatically raises the question: why do potential clients decide to work with supplier 1 and not supplier 2….and what does the concept of Trust have to do with this?
Far more than we can imagine, there are forces at play that we might not detect physically, but we and our clients feel very well on the inside. It is this small voice within that says: ‘I have a better feeling with supplier 1 than 2’. It is not something we can always rationally explain, although we try to in the end: ‘this supplier has more experience with these types of requests, their proposal looked sharp, they are from our region…’
But there is more to it.
To go deeper into the Intimacy part of David Maister’s model, I would like to call it the vibrational match. It is energy operating at a similar level. The moment we feel a vibrational match, the waves of the sea within us , weave with the waves of our counterpart and we both feel seen and heard. You sense they really understand you, and vice versa. It is in this moment that your client subconsciously knows: ‘I will or will not buy from this person or organisation.’
Let us now go back to what this means for your organisation. Rather than asking yourself, ‘why did we miss out on this opportunity, what did I do wrong or what did the competition do better’, ask yourself: ‘was there a vibrational match between us? Did we dance the same rhythm? And if not, is it a rhythm we or they can and like to tune in to?’
Asking yourself these questions creates space for detecting the real DNA, the real value proposition of your company. The moment this becomes clearer, you are also able to better attract the clients that like to dance to your tune. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out there and meet people, but the hunting part of sales is transformed by a deep level of trust and knowing that the right opportunity will come along anyway.
This approach redesigns your sales approach from push to pull. You trust that the right client will be there at the right time for you, and that a missed opportunity is a wave that would have caused ripples in the calm sea of your organisation anyway. So the next time you go out to a potential client and put in the effort to bring in the deal, ask yourself: ‘are we dancing together or stepping on each other’s feet?’ And when the rhythm does not match, ask yourself: ‘am I pushing myself to tune in, or do I consciously step away from the dance floor because I know a better dancing partner is waiting for me somewhere else?’ Perhaps knowing when to step in and when to step away, while staying true to your own rhythm, is what defines a strong and healthy organisation.