It’s a Matter of Trust

People find themselves in a buying situation mostly because they need something. However, even with a strong product and offerings, the right rapport with your clients will have huge impact on whether they buy from you.

A recent study conducted revealed insightful findings on what the most important criteria are to a business person making a buying decision. It’s probably not going to surprise you that the most important factor is whether the sales person has the trust of the customer. The second is whether the customer has the respect of the sales person. The top two relate directly to the salesperson’s ability to establish a rapport and a business relationship with the customer.

The next most important criteria focus on the company and its offerings. Customers will look at the reputation of the company, the product’s benefits and pricing. If you were wondering where liking the salesperson fell, it was number eleven.

There is nothing wrong with being likeable. In fact, that is a good element to have in any selling situation. However, if you are placing too much emphasis on being liked, you may be missing the opportunity to demonstrate those elements most important for building productive business relationships. Also, understand that there is a difference on “being liked” and “building rapport.” Building rapport is critical.

You may disagree with the rankings of key buying criteria, and perhaps the criteria themselves. If so, revisit a situation when you were making a large purchase decision. What did the salesperson have to do to earn the right for you to buy? Did you trust and respect the sales person? Did they build rapport or try to be liked? What consideration did you place on the strength of the company’s brand and their product’s benefits? Ultimately, where did price fall in your decision?

The process of building strong business relationships is not easy – in fact, it is quite complex. There are no silver bullets. You will be most successful if you approach this by remembering that at the core of every solid business partnership there is mutual trust, respect and value – and working to create those with all of your customers and prospects.