SALES & MARKETING By Paul Watkins
Money is the currency
of transaction: is the currency of interaction
Trust
Trust is important for any relationship. Paul Watkins talks us through gaining trust and turning a prospect into a client.
T
his is a quote from Rachel Botsman, author of a recently released book called "Who can you trust?". In her book she argues that trust has become the single most important factor in any business or personal relationship. When a movie studio shows a trailer to a new movie, it's designed to impress with key scenes from the movie. Then when you go and see it, you realise that the three amazing scenes shown in the trailer were the only good bits. We are now far more likely to go into IMDB. com and see what strangers thought of it. You note that 8,000 people rated it a 5.5 out of 10, meaning mediocre, so you don’t go to it. We are now more influenced by strangers than institutions. We have lost faith in the big brands and their promises. Highly respected car manufacturer Volkswagen got it very wrong with the emissions software in their cars. Trust in the brand was badly hurt. There is a joke circulating on Facebook right now, that says in 1998, the word was,
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"Don’t get into a car with a stranger". Then in 2008, "Don’t meet people from the internet alone". Now in 2018, "Order yourself a stranger from the internet and get into their car with them alone." This refers to Uber of course. Airbnb is the same, in that we stay in stranger’s homes, often with them in the house as well. Why do we trust these services? In Europe ride-sharing is growing fast. You want to go from one city to another, so go to an app to find someone else also going that way. You then get into a car with the stranger for the long ride. Really? We still choose these options first in a lot of cases. Why? This change has come about through the advent of the internet and more specifically, social media.
A SAD FACT: TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS GET THEIR NEWS THROUGH FACEBOOK – Rachel Botsman Yes, that almost totally unmoderated and free-posting platform where people rant
and rave about their peeves and gripes, is where Americans and many others in the western world get their news. This is helping cause the traditional press to fail. We take it at face value and accept it as news. We have stopped trusting the established and professional press and television and gone for the "real news" from people out there on the ground. “Fake news” in the traditional press has struck a chord with many. Trust is the new currency. Interaction is what you want. If you trade on price, such as “I can get you the lowest interest rate”, or “I compare all insurance companies to get you the best deal”, then you are offering a transaction-based relationship. Prospects can find those themselves on the internet. But it’s not what most clients want. If they want a better price, its due to a deeper reason. I recall visiting a broker to help with ideas for prospecting and he showed me how he compared every available mortgage option under a range of structures and presented all of these to his clients. He then
