“Trust has never been more relevant in today’s world, especially in such difficult economic times. Now more than ever: the ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust with all stakeholders-customers, business partners, investors, and co-workers-is the key leadership competency of the new, global economy. Trust is a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing.”
-Stephen M. R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust
Craig and I had a discussion, stemmed from the 30 other conversations we had this past week, about what is the most important element we could present to our clients, prospects, partners, etc. And, amazingly, we came with a unanimous consensus that we own a company that can be trusted. It’s our need to express to anyone who is interested in developing a relationship with us, as an individual or through Beholder, is that we are ethical professionals, genuinely interested in their well-being.
Now here’s the tricky and frustrating part… how do you do that without first establishing a relationship? Well… you don’t. I wouldn’t.
Quick story on trust – About 15-16 years ago, Craig and I set out to buy our “first” car together. It was an exciting time. If I recall, we walked into a Toyota dealer, one woman seated us in one area, a gentleman came in and asked us to come into another room, and then a 3rd gentleman came in to highlight all the wonderful things about their dealership, in a completely new cubicle. As we were being piggy-backed room to room, I became increasingly annoyed because we actually didn’t like any car there. Why didn’t we leave then? Because they had our car that we drove in with, in the mechanic’s area, to establish its value as a trade in.
After asking politely the first 3 times, and if you know me personally, my tone changed to that of, “You don’t want to make me angry….” expression. We told him we were not interested and just wanted to go. And asked what is going on back there that you can’t just give us our car back? Mind you – it’s been about 3 hours!
He said quietly and sheepishly, “What? Don’t you trust me?” – I hit the cubicle wall and said “I trust you about as much as I trust this tack on the wall. I don’t know you and all I know is you have my car and won’t return it.” Needless to say, within 5 minutes of this brief tirade, for fear of driving off other customers, we had our car and headed home.
They never established any sense of trust. The brand itself built up a perception that it would be wise for us to go into the dealership… but the team inside ruined that experience… that expectation… the deal.
Final thoughts - Be consistent. Build the relationship. Build your brand based on what you expect to provide. And then do what is expected… if not go beyond their expectations.
Til next time…
Emilia
