As it turns out Richard is about as honest a bloke as you would ever meet. He not only runs his business honestly providing his clients with true value for money, but he also meets every obligation to his business suppliers, his alliance partners and the tax man.
I know for a fact that he would rather go to bed hungry than disappoint a client or not pay a bill on time. He is well known around town, he knows everyone by their first name and is active in the community.
Richard has never been short of work. Even in the depth of the recession when businesses were shutting down everywhere, he still had enough work to keep him going.
There is no doubt that my colleague has a good value proposition. He provides an excellent service and a quality product. But in the country town one extra ingredient is critical. Trust. Without trust there is no business.
In the big cities there is much more anonymity. We all work really hard to win a new client. But if you want repeat business and you want to be recommended, you must build trust in the same way that it is built in a small community.
However most of us in business are not trusted .In a recent Readers Digest survey Paramedics, Firefighters, Rescue Volunteers and Nurses came out as being trustworthy.
Regrettably most small business owners such as Childcare Workers, Chefs, Hairdressers, Waiters, Plumbers, Accountants, Shop Assistants, Builders, Mechanics and Truck drivers did not rate so well.
At the bottom of the list are the usual suspects such as Insurance salespeople, Call Center Operators, Door-to-door Salespeople and Telemarketers.
If you want to grow your business and have lots of recommendations, you need a very good value proposition, and you have to build trust in yourself and your businesses.
How then, do we build trust?
Trustworthiness is a function of credibility +reliability +Intimacy / self-orientation.
Credibility is built by having expertise in your industry and staying current with industry trends and business news.
Credibility is increased when you say, “I don’t know” when that’s the honest answer. It is also increased when you have passion for your subject and you communicate with self-assurance.
Credibility is often demonstrated by the qualifications you have and the membership of the relevant trade or business association.
Reliability is built by having consistency, predictability and a feeling of familiarity. Being on time and doing what you promise to do and taking responsibility for your work will help grow your reliability.
Turning up to start on time and delivering the job or service in full and on time will help build reliability. My colleague Richard, is never late on delivering a job. He will work late into the evening for weeks at a time just to make sure that he honours his commitment to a finish date.
Intimacy refers to the safety that you feel when entrusting someone or something.
For example when a patient says the she can trust the nurse because she has always been confidential with personal details. Intimacy can be built by using a persons name, telling someone what you appreciate about them and sharing something personal about yourself.
Self-Orientation means focus, or more precisely whom you focus on, yourself or others. This is the area that most business people need to improve.
They are so focused on closing the deal that they do not focus enough on the client. When you are dealing with customers the key to building trust is to focus 100% on their requirements.
Understand their wants and needs and ensure that you meet both before you ask for the business. Once you have the business, then ensure that you exceed the customers requirements.
The best business is repeat business, and there is no repeat business unless you provide a quality service or product and there is Trust.
David Ley can be contacted at david.ley@thextonarmstrong.com.au
