We’ve all heard that people do business with people they know, like, and trust. Helping your customers get to know you or like you is easier than getting them to trust you, and building trust is a key element in sales success. In fact, 70% of buyers today believe trust is more important now than ever before.
But how do you get buyers to trust you when they don’t know you yet? There are several things you can do to start developing lasting relationships with new prospects on customer calls. Just doing these 4 things will shift the needle on that ‘know, like, trust’ scale and get your prospects wanting to work with you and become long-term customers.
The classic (and best) way to make prospects feel comfortable is by building rapport with them. Although sales calls are ultimately about solving business challenges, it all boils down to a conversation between two people. One way to break the ice with your prospect is to acknowledge and embrace your human side with a question that's a little more personal.
Take a look at your contact’s LinkedIn profile before your call. Make note of things like where they’re located, where they went to school, and anything personal that is mentioned on their profile that you can relate to. Then be sure to mention it by asking them about it at the start of the conversation.
Who knows, you may have attended the same university, or you may even have a personal friend as a mutual connection. Acknowledging their life outside of work is a good way to connect on a more personal level, and can easily lead to finding some common ground.
Doing this gets the prospect talking about themselves and ultimately makes them feel more at ease. Plus, starting with something a bit more personal shows that you’re interested in them as a person, not just a potential customer.
Once you get the prospect talking, your goal is for them to continue doing most of the talking during the call. Research shows that the most successful sales reps speak only 43% of the time during sales calls and the prospect speaks the other 57% of the time.
An excellent way to accomplish this is to ask open-ended questions and listen carefully to the responses. Then ask follow-up questions to get deeper details and insights. By doing this, you’ll learn more about your prospect and gain their trust by showing your interest in what they have to say. You’ll also be better prepared to guide the customer to the best solution when the time comes.
55% of buyers feel that it’s important that sales reps understand their business, situation and needs when they speak with them (that means doing your homework ahead of the call - see the research here).
You’ll have a difficult time building a relationship with a prospect if you don’t make the effort to understand the fundamentals before you have your first conversation with them. Buyers are busy, and they don’t necessarily want to fill you in on information that you can get hold of yourself. They want to use that precious meeting time to discuss their challenges and want to know that you can help them identify the best solution.
Keeping promises on a regular basis is essential for building trust. Start with telling the prospect what they should expect during your first call when you’re scheduling it. Then (and here’s the important part), you have to follow through by doing what you promised. For example, if you tell them the call will be 15 minutes long, avoid running over that time. If the call is going well and there’s still more to discuss when the clock runs out, ask the prospect how they’d like to proceed. Find out if they have more time now, or if they’d prefer to schedule another call to continue the conversation. This will show that you (a) respect their time and (b) keep your promises. Something as simple as this will result in the prospect appreciating and trusting you more.
To start building trust with new prospects during your first customer call, remember to get them talking about themselves, make sure you listen more than you speak, know your customer, and keep your promises. It’s a sure-fire way to ensure that customers will want to continue working with you, and will help you to develop those long-term relationships that we all find valuable.
Interested in improving your customer calls? Book a demo with a member of our team to see how Jiminny can help you improve your customer calls and track your growth and development.