Trust, in the Chinese business world, has a specific name: 'guanxi' (relationships). Apart from blood relations, most relationships are built after birth; innate relationships depend on parents, while acquired ones depend on what you do.
In a previous article, I discussed the four core elements of building trust in sales: professional image, professional knowledge, common ground, and benefits. Now, in the context of customer visits, let's delve into the methods of building trust.
Preparation Before the Visit
Preparation before a visit is one of the most effective ways to build trust, yet many salespeople do not give it enough attention.
Visiting a customer is not like visiting relatives; no matter how good your relationship is, a formal visit cannot be treated as aimless chatting. Before the visit, besides designing the action commitment as mentioned earlier, you should also prepare the following:
Basic Customer Information
If it's your first meeting, you can briefly ask about their background, but if you ask again on the second visit, they'll feel disrespected. For information you can find in advance, don't keep asking the customer; they are not obligated to answer questions that don't benefit them.
At minimum, you should know:
- The customer's main business scope, products, and market situation.
- How their customers and main competitors use your products or your competitors' products (this is often of interest to the customer).
- The customer's internal purchasing habits and processes.
For complex products, the most important thing to know in advance is the customer's industry situation; no one wants to chat with an outsider.
There are many ways to obtain this information. Besides websites, another good method is to talk to people who have done business with the customer. When I worked in software, I often learned about customers from friends in hardware, and it often yielded unexpected gains.
Professional Preparation
Salespeople should never forget one thing: the customer's time is valuable.
So you need to compensate for this cost by making the meeting worthwhile for the customer, and the best way is through your professionalism.
Professional knowledge here means understanding the customer's business problems and having the ability to solve them.
What if you're not professional enough?
There are two ways: one is to stay up all night preparing relevant knowledge; the other is to bring a professional with you.
Professional knowledge is an effective means of building trust, and it's not as hard to learn as you might think. Strangely, many salespeople spend their whole careers without learning this knowledge. They'd rather be looked down upon by customers for years than spend a few nights preparing. That's baffling.
Effective Business Reason
This is something many salespeople overlook. When scheduling meetings, they often give self-righteous reasons like "I want to visit you," "I want to introduce our product," or "I'll drop off some materials."
But if we put ourselves in the customer's shoes, their first thought when receiving your call is: "What does this guy want?" If they can't answer that, they'll likely find an excuse to reject you.
A business reason is not a chat reason; it's business-related. It tells the customer two things: what you're going to do and what's in it for them. For example, "I'd like to discuss financial management issues to better incorporate your ideas into the solution."
An effective business reason has many benefits. First, it clarifies for yourself what you're going to do; many salespeople don't even know why they're visiting, which severely hampers efficiency. Second, it lets the customer confirm whether the matter is of concern to them, and it also serves as a check on your sales goals.
Additionally, an effective business reason can make the customer perceive you as professional, make them feel respected, allow them to prepare in advance, and even create anticipation.
Despite these benefits, many still don't do it. Common excuses include:
- "This visit is purely courtesy." If it's purely courtesy, what does it have to do with sales? That's your personal business. If it's related to sales but you don't talk business, what will the customer think? They've given their time.
- "If I do that, the customer will think I'm only there for business, which isn't in line with local customs." Don't fool yourself; even if you don't say it, the customer knows why you're there.
- "A too formal reason will make the customer uncomfortable." That's purely the salesperson's feeling; customers only feel uncomfortable when they don't know why you're there, because they think you're wasting their time.
So, an effective business reason is a must. Don't worry; say it out loud.
Prepare Questions in Advance
No matter how many years you've been in sales, don't expect to come up with questions on the spot. You must prepare in advance.
Preparation here has two parts: what questions to ask and how to ask them. We'll discuss the 'how' later. The direction of questions generally includes:
- Customer's business goals and needs
- Purchasing decision process and progress
- Project budget
- Changes in the customer's situation
- Purchasing roles
- Competitors
- Customer's opinions and evaluations
With these four things, plus the action commitment, you're basically set. Effective preparation is the first step in building trust. Now let's knock on the customer's door!
Building Trust During the Visit
Building trust is not something you do in one visit; it's something you do every visit. It's a continuous accumulation process that requires constant vigilance.
How to accumulate trust? Besides the core elements we've discussed, the following techniques are commonly used sales skills.
Have Approachability
Approachability means the customer likes you upon meeting. It's the foundation of trust; if they don't like you, it's hard to trust you.
If it's your first meeting, you'll face this question: should you chat casually to warm up, or get straight to business?
Most people answer based on their own preferences, not the customer's. Customers with different social styles have different preferences, and how you handle this directly affects their first impression.
There's a simple solution: when you meet, you'll shake hands and exchange pleasantries, like introducing yourself. After your introduction, don't rush to speak; pause for four seconds. A brief pause or silence allows the customer to speak first. What they say will help you judge the appropriate approach.
If the customer warmly asks about your well-being or offers tea, chat for a while; if they stay silent or get straight to the point, don't beat around the bush.
Learn to Listen and Ask Questions
The customer believes you can solve their problem only if you understand it; they believe you understand it only if they've explained it clearly; they believe they've explained it clearly only if you've listened attentively and asked targeted questions.
Therefore, even if you know the customer's problem well, pretend to listen. Listening builds trust between you and the customer.
Conversely, if you don't listen and start talking immediately, the customer's first reaction is: "This guy is here to cheat me; he only cares about selling, not solving my problem, so he's a fraud."
Sometimes trust is that simple.
Ask Precise Questions
We said professionalism is important for building trust, but you can't just tell the customer you're professional. Here's a trick: ask precise questions.
For example, if you're researching procurement and warehousing issues, compare these two questions:
First: "Why can't the budget be executed effectively?"
Second: "From my experience, ineffective budget execution often has many causes, such as insufficient deliberation during budget formulation, lack of performance evaluation at the execution level, but the most common is lack of process supervision and implementation tools. That's my understanding; what do you think causes it?"
Both are questions, but who seems more professional? Of course, to ask such questions, you need to be genuinely professional; you can't fake it.
Learn to Tell Stories
You can say you've dealt with many customers, implemented many projects, and solved many problems, but such direct self-praise is too blatant. A subtle way to gain trust is to tell third-party stories.
A third-party story is about another customer's success or failure. As a salesperson, you can collect such stories and use them as your own, regardless of who did them.
Telling a good story isn't easy. It must include:
- The third-party customer's company name, the people you contacted (names, positions, backgrounds)
- Specific problems of specific people, preferably ones your current customer might also encounter
- How you solved their problems
- The benefits after solving them
- How your third-party customer viewed the matter and their personal feelings
With these details, a complete story becomes credible. Customers can also learn about your professionalism from these stories, thereby building trust.
Three Small Tricks
Third-Party Referral:
Many have used this trick, so I won't elaborate. Just one reminder: you need to communicate with your third-party in advance to ensure they can genuinely vouch for your quality and ability. Often, even if they want to praise you, they don't know how.
Bring in the Boss:
Customers often assess a salesperson's capability by how many resources they can mobilize. Additionally, in Chinese culture, people tend to believe that those in higher positions tell the truth (though often the opposite is true). So, when it's time to bring in the boss, don't hesitate. That's what bosses are for.
Develop an Insider:
This is a key method for building trust.
How do you win people's favor?
Relying solely on your own efforts isn't enough. If someone can guide you, you'll get twice the results with half the effort. They can tell you the buyer's preferences and habits, and also how each role in the customer's organization views you. Whoever doesn't like you, you can work on them.
I've shared many trust-building techniques. If I had to summarize the core of building trust, it's to always keep in mind what the customer hopes to gain from this purchase. Once you see that clearly, building trust becomes easy because you're on the same side of the trench.
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