Maybe Trust

It is human nature to question. New people, strange environments, new foods, and new products are among the endless number of items that are cause for pause. People have a tendency to be skeptical when faced with new situations, and only develop trust after a period of assessment and acceptance.

It appears to be a natural phenomenon; humans, as physical beings, are wired for survival. These survival instincts cause an immediate assessment regarding the level of trust that can be afforded in any personal, business, or customer service situation. When a new situation is encountered, the automatic response is to ask the question “Is this safe for my body, my family, and my values?”

As people assess trust, what are they really looking for? Safety is certainly a factor, but upon deeper inspection, there are other distinctions that warrant further scrutiny. For instance, in dealing with the issue of trusting others at work or on the home front, one may ask the following questions:

“Do this person’s words match their actions?”
“Does the person I am speaking with have a hidden agenda?”
“Is this person honest?”

There are also different ways in which people display trust. One can give their complete trust over to another; it can be offered in a grounded fashion, after doing one’s homework and getting to know them. It can also be naïve trust, offered blindly, which generally leads to later regrets and further skepticism when faced with new situations.

The question for people in business, especially those in sales and customer service, is how to build a long-term, business relationship rooted on mutual trust with prospects and customers who are skeptical, have likely felt deceived in past business dealings, and are in survival mode. Here is the answer: creating a long term relationship built on complete trust, begins with the very first conversation with a prospect or customer. Skillfully using language, companies, sales people, customer service representatives, and service advisors can reach out to their customers and prospects, causing those people to believe that they can “maybe trust” the person with whom they are speaking.

Maybe Trust is a key distinction because it represents a moment in time where the possibility of ‘long term trust’ shows up as an assessment by the customer.

Business professionals who know how to create a mood of “maybe trust” in the first few seconds on the telephone and/or in person will excel in the domain of sales. It is within this mood of “maybe trust” that people are all willing to take a small risk on a new product or service. Then, and only then, after establishing this foundation, can the relationship grow into one of ongoing contact forged in long-term trust.