Every client relationship starts with trust.
But trust can be a hard concept to define, let alone act upon.
The definition that has worked best for me through the years is this:
“Trust is the unwavering faith that the person you’re talking to has your best interests at heart”
So the next obvious question is, how do we make sure our clients have that perception of us?
It all starts with curiosity. We need to be curious on who they are, what’s important to them, what their business is like, what their success criteria are, and what kind of things represent value to them.
Once we know that, we start to get an understanding of what motivates the client’s behavior – both in terms of what they move toward and what they move away from.
When we know that, we can engage in an informed discussion about how they might change to get more of what they want and less of what they don’t want.
That is where trust starts.
That is how you get your client to pay attention to you, and how to peak their curiosity.