What’s hard to acquire but easy to lose?

We have likely all heard that people buy from others that they know, like and trust. I would like to stress that when I say “buy”, I don’t just mean the exchange of money for some good or service. I am including all transactions wherein one person is attempting to convince, influence or persuade another person to exchange something that they have for something the other person has. We’ve also likely discovered that trust, like Rome, is not built in a day.

Trust might be compared to money in our bank account. It has value and the more that we have the more valuable it becomes and the greater the number of options that present themselves to us. Without it, our options are greatly diminished. It takes a concerted effort to build our ‘trust account’ with others.

So, how can we develop this thing called trust?

One possibility is to look for situations where we can make a commitment to do something. Once we’ve made a commitment, please realize that a commitment is a promise. The good news related to promises is that most of us believe in keeping the promises that we make. Our promises help define us.

So, make a small commitment to a prospect that you absolutely know that you can keep. Then deliver on it. It can be as simple as making an offer to send something of interest that you spoke to your prospect about. However, don’t surprise the prospect by simply sending the item to him/her. Instead, clearly state that you’ll send it and indicate a completion date. Then follow through.

The above action will demonstrate that you keep your word.  And bear the following in mind. When you are working towards building a trusting relationship, “we are our word”. Others don’t know how to judge us in the early days of a relationship except by what we say and whether we do what we say we are going to do.

When that elusive trust is gained, it would be a shame to squander it by breaking our word.

 

BIZBUZZ: Restak, Richard; The Naked Brain

This is episode 8 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations to challenge business owners to consider new possibilities and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights some of the content from Richard Restak’s book The Naked Brain that grabbed my attention.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZ BUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on The Naked Brain, a book written by Richard Restak that deals essentially with the subject of emotion and logic.

I’d like to make three observations from the book that I feel are worth considering.

The first deals with verbal communication.  Restak contends that tone of voice is the most revealing of all sensory channels when it comes to detecting a speaker’s true feelings or beliefs.  Is our listening active enough that we pick up tone of voice?  Perhaps more importantly, do we pay attention to it?

My next observation deals with customer loyalty.  Restak states that customer loyalty has a profound emotional component.  He underscores the significance of this statement by indicating that a 5% increase in the number of loyal customers will, on average, increase your profit per customer by 25 to 100%.  That is very dramatic!

My final comment deals with some Gallup research that is presented in the book.  Gallup found that people stay loyal to brands that engage their trust and their affection.  The limbic part of our brain controls our emotions.  Are we reaching that emotional level with our customers?  Are they merely satisfied with our products & services or are they genuinely happy?

That’s it for The Naked Brain.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.