Trust Me

‘Trust Me.” Ever have someone say those words to you? Or “I’m going to be totally honest with you.” In sales, just saying those words is likely to raise red flags for your clients and prospects. If clients and prospects can trust you to be totally honest, why would you have to say it?

Search the word “trust,” and you’ll get nearly two billion search results. Meaning, it’s important stuff. Trust is defined as: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone. That’s how to build trust.

Mark Altschuler is responsible for general business management and operations at MediaVilllage. In a recent article, Ad Sales Excellence Begins with Trust, he shares some critical information from The Myers Report Survey of Advertiser & Agency Executives:

Trust and reliability is ranked as the most valued attribute according to 700 advertiser and agency influencers who responded to the 2021 survey. Altschuler shares seven things he says are common to media that contribute to positive or negative trust:

1. Delivering on Audience Guarantees.

2. Be proactive with information. Transparency about changes in your company builds trust.

3. Everyone plays a role. A promise fulfilled earns trust. A broken promise damages trust.

4. Trust is an all-the-time thing.

5. Reverse actions that damage trust quickly. Solve problems and mistakes quickly.

6. Organizational trust is won by teams.

7. Trust is a habit to be discussed, understood and honored in the organization.

In Professional Development at RAB, we love acronyms, because they are helpful in remembering critical information. We’ve created the T.R.U.S.T acronym to help you identify the key behaviors that will help you build and maintain trusts:

T - Transparency – your clients and prospects deserve the straight story – no spin.

R - Responsibility – behavior, not words, mean the most.

U - Understand – It’s our job to understand our clients and prospects.

S – Service - superior service demonstrates the importance of your clients.

T - Truth – be truthful in all interactions.

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can also connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.