Too many advisors claim that they lose the sale on price.

All too often that’s not the case.

You didn’t lose the sale on price – you lost it because your customer doesn’t trust you.

So how do you get customers to trust you?

The main pitfall when it comes to trust is self-orientation.

Self-orientation is the tendency we all have to focus on our ourselves, and what we have to offer.

It usually looks like walking into a meeting and presenting your solution right off the bat without any exploration (or care) about the client’s needs.

What usually happens in this case, is that the client will have a hard time seeing how the solution solves their problem (and solving the client’s problem is the only reason we’re in the room in the first place). And when the client can’t see how our solution will solve our problem, they will send us on our merry way again, without a sale, or any meaningful interaction to show for it.

At its most basic level trust is defined as the unwavering belief that our counterpart wants what’s best for us

That means that we need to set aside self-interest, our own products, bonus and everything else that doesn’t relate directly to our client’s world.

It means that we need to approach the client from the outside-in and start by caring about their problems, caring about what’s on their mind, what their situation looks, before we care about how to solve their problems.

Above all it means that we need to ask and listen

And this leads us to another major pitfall when it comes to building trust. Too many advisors ask too few questions and don’t listen to the answers. Or even worse, if the do listen, they only do soin order to get to say something.

This is revolting and scares your client straight into the arms of your competitors.

Remember – you have two ears and one mouth for a reason. 

If you want to build trust with your clients, you must understand them

And when I say understand, I mean gain a full, in-depth understanding of what drives them, their situation, their goals, their pains and the challenges they need to overcome to realize their full potential.

This means that you need to get good – as in really good – at asking open questions, pertaining to them and their situation.

You must practice getting them to open up, and spill the beans.

This in turn, means that you must silence your own inner voice, and stay with the conversation as much as possible.

Forget about which question you want to ask next in order to sound smart.

Forget about which product or service you want to sell to your client.

Forget about your bonus, your boss, your company values and yourself.

Focus one hundred percent on the client and what they are telling you.

If you manage to do that, then you can’t help but build trust with them.

And better yet, it’ll happen sooner than you think.

Sometimes it can happen in the course of a single question:

“What inspired you to take this meeting?”