Building trust relationships in business - you have to give to get

Oct 14, 2014 by Yvonne Treen

You Have To Give To Get

I once went on a Microsoft Excel course.  Perhaps you’ve been on a similar course - you sit at a computer and do their exercises – it all seems easy and straightforward.  You go back to work and about 70% of what you learnt has gone out the window if you don’t use it straight away. 

I asked the friendly tutor to show me how to do something I really wanted to learn. Sorry, no -  that’s in the next level-up course.  They were strictly rationing how much I could learn on one course because this was the way to sell more courses.  In training lingo, they were content-centric, not learner-centric. 

Would this sales strategy make you want to go on another course?

You want your customers to feel that you provide your expertise in a proactive way, anticipating their issues or problems, their lack of experience or expertise.  Being relaxed about working proactively with your customers shows that you do not have a ‘rationing’ mentality, that there is more you have to offer and that you are totally comfortable with always being able to demonstrate your value.  This builds trust and demonstrates a customer-centric not knowledge-centric approach. 

This doesn’t mean you do your business partner’s work for them or that the monkey shifts off their back to yours.  Just don’t leave them alone and wait to see if they get it right. 

“Expertise is like love – not only is it unlimited, but you can destroy it by not giving it away.  It is the uniquely human ability to redefine a problem and come up with creative solutions for solving it.  It is what every successful adviser brings to every situation, and it only gets better with practice.” 

The Trusted Advisor  Maister, Green , Galford.