Near as I can figure, there are three kinds of paradoxes. First is the kind of card trick or three card Monty type of paradox. They look like there is…

We often talk about pinnng the blame, what if instead we pinned the credit more often?

You’ve graduated from Question Obsession 101. You’ve learned not to pepper clients with endless questions or craft that perfect “Keystone Arch Question” expecting miracles. You’re focusing on relationships, creating insights,…

Have you counted how many questions you ask in your typical client meeting? Do you find yourself carefully crafting the “perfect” question sequence before every sales call? Are your meeting…

There’s no denying that trust is a critical differentiator for success. Companies with high-trust cultures outperform their peers in productivity, innovation, and employee retention. Yet despite significant investments in ethics…

In part 1 of this blog series, we refocused the return to office debate on finding common ground, founded on common goals. In part 2, we looked at what employers…

In part 1 of this blog series, we reframed the Return to Office (RTO) debate from a highly polarized, all-or-nothing conflict between employers and employees to an exercise in finding common…

After a prolonged period of remote work, many employers are now asking – or demanding – that employees return to the office. On January 1, 2025, Axios reported that 32%…

In today’s fast-paced work environment, multitasking has become a badge of honor. We pride ourselves on juggling multiple projects, responding to emails during meetings, and switching between tasks with lightning…

According to a recent Braintrust study on B2B selling, only 33% of sales reps consistently hit their targets. Whether that data point reflects inaccurate goalsetting or a need for upskilling,…

We often think of establishing trust in business relationships in sales-related roles. For instance, if I have a product or service, I will tell you how my industry knowledge and…

Trust is complicated in many aspects of our daily lives; by comparison, trust in business seems relatively straightforward. Or is it? While personal trust involves emotional and relational complexities, trust in…

Due to several universal experiences and observations, everyone is familiar with taking risks, whether they engage in them or not. Even those who avoid taking risks are familiar with the…

Trust, a universal concept, is pivotal in our daily conversations. We often invoke it in statements that we believe to be meaningful. It’s a comprehensive language that binds us all,…

In this blog series, we explore five of the most common misconceptions about trust that, while they are widely-held, are powerful inhibitors to creating real trust: Trust has to be…

How do you build trust in your team or organization? A lot of the “conventional wisdom” is that it must be a concerted effort, led by the Office of the…

In this blog series, we explore five of the most common misconceptions about trust that, while they are widely-held, are powerful inhibitors to creating real trust: Trust has to be…

There are many misconceptions about trust that pervade how we think about professional relationships. While most seem harmless (think about Ronald Reagan’s admonition to trust, but verify), unless they are…

Part I of this blog described how over-emphasizing the trust-building factors in the Trust Equation without balancing your self-orientation can actually hurt your trustworthiness. It also identified many internal and…

Playing to our strengths can be seductive. We all want to feel we are presenting our best selves, and that naturally leads us to emphasize those things at which we…

In a recent TrustMatters webinar, I shared four key attributes of Trusted Advisor relationships, and six mindsets that can help you get there. You can view this and all our…

Let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine that you’ve been put in charge of an effort to improve the level of trust that people have in your organization (which could be…

I’m noticing there are two types of people in this world; those who when on Zoom calls (or Teams, etc.) turn their camera on, and those who prefer to leave…

One of the myriad things we learned from “The Great Resignation,” where employees across the nation voluntarily resigned from their jobs, is that people are no longer willing to stay…

We’ve all heard it (and may have said it ourselves) many times: “Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose.” Often that statement is followed up with, “And, once…

Zoom and other virtual meeting spaces helped save personal and professional relationships across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic. While we all adjusted to an explosion in the prevalence of…

There are seemingly endless reasons our clients do not take our advice. Challenges like internal disagreements, budget constraints, and rotating decision-makers can cause countless proposals to be refused or ignored,…

I just bought a car. The last time I bought a car from a dealer was over 20 years ago, and it was a horrendous experience. Based on that experience,…

Some years ago I wrote about a “Better New Year’s Resolution.” It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. For years I tried to improve on it, and…

I recently listened to Howard Stern’s interview with (Sir) Paul McCartney. One part stood out. Howard asked Paul about multiple instances where John Lennon had been cruel towards McCartney; didn’t…

Have you ever felt compelled to share positive information about yourself with a boss or supervisor and – instead – developed lock-jaw, unable to get the words out? Your mind…

Let’s talk about focus. Many respected authors will tell you that focus is essential to achieving success. They call it concentration, determination, single-mindedness, resolve – whatever the word, the message…

A question I often ask when running leadership development programs is, “How many of you know people who are ‘gold medal’ listeners?” Usually about one-third of the people in the…

You may have heard the quote, “It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.” That saying, like several other truisms about trust, is far from…

In Gallup’s annual poll of Most Trusted Professions, lawyers rank 11th out of 15. In our work with clients, we often ask for unprompted answers to “which professions are least…

Being influential can be challenging in-and-of-itself; being influential with a skeptical audience poses its own unique difficulties—not the least of which is our own emotional reality. Let’s be real: How…

I recently shared my point of view on The (R)evolution of Trust-based Leadership. In that post I concluded that new leadership requires versatility and depends more on influence and collaboration…

It’s been (gulp) more than 20 years since I got my MBA. At the time, just before the turn of this century, Gordon Gekko’s fictional speech in the movie Wall…

Countless studies and articles show that trust and high performing teams are interlinked. One such study by The Great Place to Work Institute shows that high-trust organizations beat the average…

We’re all panicked. Agitated. There’s world-wide upheaval. No one knows what the future holds. For many of us, our so-called stress behaviours can start to become the norm.  If we’re…

Since The Trusted Advisor was first published in 2000, the most popular theme in the book has been the Trust Equation. And within that equation, the factor that has stirred the most interest…

Let’s face it, in professional services, difficult clients come with the territory. You’ve probably encountered at least one: A client who refuses to share information, explore ideas, or otherwise engage…

It’s been 20 years since the release of The Trusted Advisor. As we began the process of creating the 20th Anniversary Edition, we dived into deep reflection on how building…

Fourteen years ago I wrote the following thoughts on New Years resolutions. It feels even more relevant this year, as we breathe a collective sigh of relief that 2020 is…

This post was co-authored by Andrea P. Howe and Noelle Mykolenko. The initial post of this blog series introduced what we called the (new) 80/20 rule for virtual relationships, warning that focusing too…

This post was co-authored by Andrea P. Howe and Noelle Mykolenko. In the first post of this four-part blog series, we introduced what we called the (new) 80/20 rule for virtual relationships. For…

This post was co-authored by Andrea P. Howe and Noelle Mykolenko. We recently introduced what we call the (new) 80/20 rule for virtual relationships. In the first of this four-part blog series, we…

Being trustworthy means you make it easier for another person to trust you. You do what you say, are authentic in your words and actions, and are an overall “solid”…

This post was co-authored by Andrea P. Howe and Noelle Mykolenko. Virtual, virtual, virtual. It’s all the rage now. Virtual meetings. Virtual teams. Virtual selling. There is no shortage of…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

This post was co-authored by Sandy Styer and Noelle Mykolenko. Trust is paramount to collaboration. In a team setting, we are called on to build trust with multiple people at…

– With contributions from Sandy Styer, Client Manager – Diagnostics and Stewart Hirsch, Senior Coach – Business Development and Executive Leadership  Pandemic. Coronavirus. Covid-19. _____.   ______.  . ______. Fill…

It’s fair to say the vast majority of us have not experienced a global public health crisis at a scale similar to the one we are experiencing right now with…

Richard Hsu, Director of the Partner Practice Group, interviews Charles H. Green, on the HSU Untied Podcast, for a deep dive discussion into how leaders can refine their trust and…

We’ve all seen the movies, or worse still, possibly heard the words – “it’s not you, it’s me.” A dramatic break up scene follows. We’re left in no doubt that…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

I’ve often wondered: is our real workplace office the coffee shop? Many years ago, when I started work as a management consultant, the smoking area was the place where information…

To say there is no shortage of COVID-19-related “best advice” out there is an understatement. Which means one thing that’s in short supply is focus. This post aims to help fill…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

As the Novel Coronavirus pandemic disrupts business across the globe, companies are scrambling to  assess and mitigate the near-term impact to their business. One of our clients recently shared an…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

The ZDNet headline is striking: “Americans trust Amazon and Google more than Oprah (and Trump).” Wow! Ring the alarm bells, right? The article goes on to cite the underlying study,…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

Thirteen years have passed since I first wrote the following thoughts on New Years resolutions. Frankly, it was good. And frankly I haven’t been able to write a better one.…

This is the fifth in a series of five posts on short (seven words or less) powerful phrases. Each phrase distills the essence of a key part of approaching trust-based…

This is the fourth in a series of five posts on short (seven words or less) powerful phrases. Each phrase distills the essence of a key part of approaching trust-based…

This is the third in a series of five posts on short (seven words or less) powerful phrases. Each phrase distills the essence of a key part of approaching trust-based…

You may have heard about the just-released movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring America’s Hollywood Golden Boy Tom Hanks. I saw it the other day, and share the…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

Welcome to the newest episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO,…

Welcome to the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

Welcome to the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

We had a really interesting discussion in a team meeting the other day about a trust-building technique that we’ve been espousing for years (one that Charlie Green first wrote about…

This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

I first became aware of “ghosting” as a concept over a decade ago, when a young friend informed me she had been “Caspered” by a boyfriend. I had to ask…

This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

Here are two (real) digital communications I recently received. What jumps out at you about the differences between the two? The first: Charles, Not sure if you got a chance…

This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations to our in-house expert Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted…

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[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

This is the second in a series of five posts on short (seven words or less) powerful phrases. Each phrase distills the essence of a key part of approaching trust-based…

  This is the first in a series of five posts on short (seven words or less) powerful phrases. Each phrase distills the essence of a key part of approaching…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

What do you do when your client gets angry at you, upset with you, in your face? In truth, most clients don’t actually yell at you.  But of course you…

A (seemingly) simple question: What is the goal of business networking? The goal of most business networking is to make new connections in order to get more business.  The goal…

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Q. What do you do when your client or customer asks you a question? A. Why, answer the question, of course! (Doh!) But – what if the question itself is…

Twelve years have passed since I first wrote the following thoughts on New Years resolutions. Frankly, it was good. And frankly I haven’t been able to write a better one.…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

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One of the most frequent trust questions I get is typically phrased as a dilemma: how can we establish trust-based long-term relationships in a culture that values short-term performance? But…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

I was in a Costco store the other day, and noticed the man whose photo you see attached here. I was struck by his t-shirt: in bold, large font, it…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast. Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

Most of you reading this are advisors, in some form or another. That’s obvious if you’re a consultant, accountant, or lawyer. Also if you’re a financial planner, account manager, executive…

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I got an email from, Ralph, the 50-ish owner of a small consulting firm. He had three competing offers to buy his practice, and a few complicating life factors. He…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

“What are the most important personal attributes for finding the right balance between being a trusted advisor, and being a competitive seller?” That was the question teed up by a…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

She says he sexually assaulted her. He categorically denies it. Surely one of them must be lying, and a Senate hearing is the right place to get to the bottom…

Let’s talk about working hard. Maybe you think you’re not working hard enough; maybe someone else is guilt-tripping you into thinking so.  On the other hand, maybe you’re worried about…

(Today’s post is a rework of an earlier one, focused on trust and reciprocity of emotions). One of the great things about country music is how it speaks to the…

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No, I’m not crazy. (Well, not because of that headline, anyway). It’s actually a serious admonition. Here’s why, and how. ———————- I suspect you want your clients to trust you.…

Over a decade ago, I wrote Trust-based Selling. As I said in the opening paragraph, “You don’t often hear those two words mentioned in the same sentence.” What that book…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

Maybe you have a college classmate in a company your firm would like to sell to.   Maybe a neighbor down the street works for an organization you wish you could…

Building trust is one of the most important responsibilities facing leaders today. While organizations go to great lengths to establish a culture that encourages trust, it falls upon individual leaders to bring that level of trust to their teams.

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is the newest of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

(I dug this out of the old chest; it still holds up). Refer your competitors to your clients in the sales process. Yes, I do mean it. This is not…

One of my favorite newsletters comes on Sunday mornings from Andy Paul. It’s called The Weekly Sales Fix. (He also does a great weekly podcast). While he focuses mostly on…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is Episode 3 of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] This is Episode 2 of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

Is your child driving you nuts with their self-destructive behavior and refusal to listen to your hard-earned wisdom? (Alternatively, are your parents driving you nuts with their constant attempts to…

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-iq141s’ admin_preview_bg=”] Welcome to debut episode of Trust Matters, The Podcast! Listeners submit their personal questions about professional relationships, trust, and business situations…

  Think for a minute about the relationship between words and reality. In theory, we use words to describe reality. In practice, it goes the other way too. The words…

Trust requires that someone take a risk. Perversely, that means the avoidance of risk is tantamount to preventing trust. One of the hardest things to do is to recognize this…

(I’m attending #CODECON this week). Trust in digital technology is a nascent hot issue. The headlines are a target-rich environment for emerging trust issues: from GDPR to autonomous vehicles to…

In the past few weeks, one Southwest Airlines flight suffered the first US airline casualty in a decade, while another flight had to be diverted when a window ruptured. While…

Sample selling isn’t just for ice cream and perfume. I have argued that it works for intangible services, mainly because the seller has expertise beyond the buyer’s range, and sample…

New headlines daily grace the front pages (or screens) of our news outlets that make us question just how far our trust in (fill in the blank) has fallen. Whether…

When you think of business development, what is the first thing that comes to mind about the purpose behind it? If you thought “to drive sales,” then this post is…

Do you go into sales meetings – even meetings with your existing clients – with a slew of prepared questions? Do you constantly find yourself asking question after question in…

How do you open a sales call? Do you strive to establish credibility? Thought leadership? Make a positive first impression? Establish trust rapidly? There are lots of answers to that…

When you offend someone, someone is offended. That seems obviously, trivially true. But the two are very different events – each touching on a part of the human experience, and…

What do buyers really want? In particular, what is the true role of expertise in evaluating the purchase of complex intangible services? — The head of marketing for a US…

The morning news is celebrating a minor triumph of civility in the United States Senate. Senator Susan Collins helped broker a (very) short-term deal by using a talking stick – a…

Where do you draw the line between general best practices and vertical industry-specific applications? The answer, of course, is it depends. Specifically, it depends on the best practice, and on…

As tech infiltrates every aspect of our personal and business lives, efficiency becomes an ever-more celebrated virtue. This is as true in communications as elsewhere. Think one-word book titles (Blink,…

Eleven years have passed since I first wrote the following thoughts on New Years resolutions. Frankly, it was good. And frankly I haven’t been able to write a better one.…

Andy Paul is an old friend, and a true expert in the field of sales. His books include Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company’s Sales, and Amp…

Some of you are partaking in the annual ritual of watching Christmas movies – most notably the perennial It’s a Wonderful Life. This is not about that movie. Instead, I…

Today’s post is by Trusted Advisor Associates’ own Andrea Howe and Stewart Hirsch. —————————— We just led a webinar on how to take a trust-based approach to building C-suite relationships.…

It’s popular to claim that “trust is down.” Mostly, that’s true. It’s definitely true that trust in government in the US has declined. It’s a bit less true of big business,…

Lisa McArthur, one of our esteemed consultants, tackles the topic of Trust & Leadership and provides practical, actionable steps you can take today to start improving both. — Into every…

Walgreens, the venerable (116 years old, second largest) US drugstore chain, has announced a new tagline as part of a new brand positioning strategy.  No longer will it be “At the…

Today’s guest post is from Rick Lepsinger, President of OnpointConsulting. They are long-time friends of ours, and leaders in the field of leadership development. Rick addresses a key application for…

In a word – no. But the reason why is not the usual critique. Let me explain. Origins in Distrust Bitcoin was born of distrust. Its original fan-base was an amalgam…

In the financial trading community, there is a concept called “risk-on, risk-off,” or RoRo for short. It refers to the general market sentiment at a point in time. Simply put,…

Sometimes when it comes to sales, we approach it as if there were some specific model or equation to follow in order to result in closed business. A + B…

It happened again the other day. A (fairly articulate) participant in one of my workshops said: Charlie, you don’t understand our system. We can’t do the trust stuff you suggest…

This week our very own Lisa McArthur tackles the weight of fear and the weightlessness of forgiveness. —- Reading the story of Dean Otto this week, it’s hard not to reflect on…

This is a guest-post by Matti Kurvinen, a former Accenture partner, now an independent consultant focusing on service strategy and operations and warranty management. We welcome him to Trust Matters.…

You’ve heard, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” You’ve also heard the reverse. You’ve heard, “You’ve got a limited amount of time to impress them; use it.”…

This is the first in an occasional series on trust in particular industry verticals. This post looks at the consulting industry. ———— In consulting, some things are changing. And some…

I spoke with BigCo, Inc. They wanted their B2B salespeople to become trusted advisors. They felt (correctly) that greater trust levels with their customers would result in greater intra-customer market…

When we think of capitalism, we typically think of competition as a central, driving force. At a macro-level, we have enshrined the value of competition in our antitrust laws. We…

Ken Roller is an experienced B2B salesperson; he spent the past 35 years in Corporate America working for 2 industry leaders (including 21 years at Intel), serving Global 1000 customers.…

What happens when someone violates your trust? What should you do? What can you do? What works? — Has your trust ever been violated? Did someone, once upon a time,…

Why is it that, in today’s age of instant gratification, we feel like we never have enough time? Emails fly across our inboxes – we get instant responses. Someone reaches…

A sales expert, I’m not. A trust expert, I think I’ve become. And it turns out, there’s a big overlap. — One of the interesting points in Neil Rackham’s classic…

It’s become a truism: you can’t manage what you can’t measure. (Actually, it’s quite a debatable proposition.) A corollary is that therefore what matters are observable behaviors, hence the essence…

Should you sell to someone’s wants, or to someone’s needs? It’s a much-discussed topic in sales. Some say you should sell to wants, not needs.  Others say exactly the opposite.…

A lot of time is wasted debating the relative merits of “hard” and “soft” skills. The right response is almost always “both,” and “it depends.”  I want to focus here…

I got an email. It was from a 50-ish owner of a small CPA firm – call him “Jose” – with three competing offers to buy his practice, and a…

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a classic conundrum in game theory. It purports to explain why two people might not cooperate, even if it is in both their best interests to…

If you’re trying to sell your services, you already know the value of being trusted. Being trusted increases value, cuts time, lowers costs, and increases profitability—both for us and for…

“An expectation is a pre-meditated resentment.”  So goes one interesting saying aimed at managing our own expectations. But what about managing others’ expectations of us? Have you ever done a small…

Few decisions in business have such dramatic effects on customer perception as how you handle your pricing – in particular, when and how you offer discounts. People may evaluate your products,…

I’m Kristin Abele, head of Trust Diagnostics at Trusted Advisor Associates.  I want to share some findings with you based on my eight years working with the TQ Trust Quotient…

A lot of casual bloggers out there – and a few not-so-casual writers, even some famous people – are fond of quipping about trust in ways that at first blush sound wise. …

Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans. –Mr. Spock in ‘I, Mudd’ The iconic Mr. Spock from Star Trek was half-Vulcan, half-human. It’s the former we…

We’ve all been faced with that dreaded moment when a potential client – or even an existing one – demands a price cut. While some basics about price cutting are the…

Many fine sales authors will tell you that an essential ingredient in selling—perhaps the essential ingredient—is effort. Gumption, grit, hustle, sweat—whatever the word, the image it conveys is that success…

A zombie idea is one that refuses to die, regardless of repeated efforts to kill  it off.  The idea that neuroscience explains trust and leadership in business is one such zombie.…

One of the more frequent comments I get in talking about being a trusted advisor is this: “We’d love to practice all the things you talk about, Charlie, we agree…

It’s an article of faith in business that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The alternative phrasing is, “What gets measured gets managed.” Nowhere are those mantras…

What’s the relationship of time to sales? Should we worry that “time’s a wasting?” Or pay more heed to “all good things in due time?”  It sounds like a trivial…

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself if you’re worthy of your client’s trust? It’s a big question, but one with an interesting twist. It seems that trust, especially a…

  You probably have a social media presence. You might even call it a social media strategy. But is it really strategic? Or is it just a lemming strategy—making you…

Mr. Ryan, Some days as Chairman must be fun. Others, like the Oscars the other night – not so much. I recognize you, in fact, know a lot about trust.…

I recently wrote about Selling from Inside Your Client’s Shoes.  The gist of it was to drill-down into the interior dialogues that we all engage in at the outset of…

On the one hand, it seems the world is getting less predictable. On the other hand, looking at the successes of Big Data and AI, haven’t we all at the…

An old business friend told me the other day that the thing he most remembers me saying was, “What problem are we trying to solve?” As he put it, “That little…

The words “trust” and “selling” are rarely mentioned in the same sentence, and some people feel that “trust-based selling” is an oxymoron. That says something about the relationships between sellers…

This post isn’t quite as wonky as the title would suggest. Bear with me. Most of us would agree that ‘trust’ is a complex concept. But few of us, I suggest,…

Ten years have passed since I first wrote the following thoughts on New Years resolutions. Frankly, it was good. And frankly I haven’t been able to write a better one.…

I was in Munich for a one-day stopover en route to Bucharest. I left New York a day earlier than planned to avoid some weather. And I realized yet again…

Is technology killing trust in your organization? Are we heading for a dehumanized, low-trust business world?  Can technology itself come up with trust-enhancing ways to guard against this trend? I’m getting…

There are two kinds of mistakes we make with trust. One is to trust mistakenly – the other is to fail to trust at all. One is a failure of…

Today’s interview is with a significant player in the world of those who seek to improve trust in the business world – Barbara Kimmel. Barbara is CEO and co-founder of…

When I co-wrote The Trusted Advisor with David Maister and Rob Galford a few years back, it became reasonably successful within several months. (Amazingly, it still ranks #5,252 – as of…

Last week, I wrote about why organizations don’t teach trust.  Now let’s move from diagnosis to prescription – let’s delve into how to build a trust-based organization. —- Let’s start…

A little while back I was asked a simple yet profound question by Tom Hines from the Monitor Group. It’s a question that over the years, I continue to get…

We’ve all done it. Talked ourselves just a little too far back into a corner. Often – and especially in a sales meeting – it’s because we feel a need to…

This is the third part of a three-blogpost series. In the first, I argued that “stupid marketing and sales” – defined as “a stultifying obsession with one’s own product features,…

This is the second of a three-part blog series. In the first, I argued that Stupid Marketing (and sales) has become endemic. Briefly, I defined “stupid” as “a stultifying obsession…

How would you rate the quality of the following three unsolicited emails? What letter grade would you assign to each? Sample A: Hi Charles, I have emailed you a few…

If you’re in an advisory or sales role, you probably strive to be a trusted advisor to your customers. After all, if your customers trust you, tons of things start to go right,…

You’ve heard about “the dog and pony show,” the “beauty contest,” or perhaps “the shoot-out.”  Maybe you just call it “the pitch.” The term is more common in some industries –…

Most salespeople love athletic metaphors. For example, consider these well-known maxims: No pain, no gain The harder you try to hit the ball, the worse you do. Note – these two platitudes…

The plaintive question suddenly took me back a few decades. I remember feeling exactly as the person described it: What am I supposed to do? On the one hand, I…

Would you like your clients to trust you? Presumably you would. And in order to trust you, they must feel that trusting you is a low-risk proposition. They must feel…

Have you ever had that sinking feeling that your client—or your hopefully prospective client—is being less than honest with you? Maybe they haven’t returned that call. The last three email…

Those of you following US presidential politics have been treated to a truly unique process this year. The role of the personal, of perceived character – and trustworthiness in particular –…

I have known Dave Stein for many years. He’s an expert in the sales field, particularly in evaluating sales training. He has always been a clear and incisive thinker, with…

You know the phrase, “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” It’s short for empathy, understanding them so well you can intuit what it feels like to take a long…

John Blakey is a UK-based author, speaker and executive coach. He just came out with a new book, The Trusted Executive. In this issue of Trust Matters, I chat with…

It may be the dirtiest little secret in professional sales. The lie we all love to tell ourselves. The truth we just hate to face up to. What secret/lie/truth is…

If you’ve ever received a personal performance evaluation at work, there’s a decent chance you left the meeting thinking, “Well, it would’ve been good to know that about four months…

Exhibit A. Google conducted a multi-year, multi-million dollar study called Project Aristotle to determine just what distinguishes successful teams from unsuccessful ones. Tons of data were examined, decades of research…

Back in 2008, RainToday.com published Fees and Pricing Benchmark Report: Consulting Industry in which they analyzed a ton of data from 645 consultants. There were six price-related topics. One in particular has…

“…’tis a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” —Shakespeare, MacBeth   Note: This post comes out of ongoing discussions with Barbara Kimmel, CEO of…

Years ago, O best beloved, there lived a musician, both popular and influential. His name was Bob Dylan. Some of you may remember. Dylan’s lyrics grace the lists of most…

  Integrity, like trust, is something we all talk about, meaning many different things – but always assuming that everyone else means precisely the same that we do.  That leads to…

When it comes to selling – many of us focus on our fears. “Will they buy?” “Are my services priced right?” “What are they looking for?” “Will they go with me?”…

Do you hate selling? Do you distrust salespeople? Do you find the whole concept, premise and purpose of sales to be somehow distasteful? You are far from alone. Even the…

What is it about selling? It can sometimes leave a bitter aftertaste the mouth – whether you’re the seller or the buyer. Why is that? I think it comes down…

To kick off the new year, we thought we’d look back at one of our more popular eBooks: The Dos and Don’ts of Trust-Based Networking. It’s the fifth in the our Trusted…

It’s that time of year again – resolutions.  We all start to assess how we can improve on the last year.  I wrote a pretty good blog post at this…

Why is it that, when it comes to sales within a service-based industry, the very thought of selling seems to leave a bad taste in one’s mouth? Below, we dive…

Most salespeople will agree – there is no stronger sales driver than a client’s trust in the salesperson. Further, the most successful route to being trusted is to be trustworthy…

Establishing trust is not a one-way street. Trust takes risk.  And that risk doesn’t just come from your clients taking a leap of faith when you hand them a proposal…

Last week, we talked a bit about pricing low to get the sale – and how that is not always the best option. But when is it okay to offer a…

It’s a time-honored business strategy – low prices. Michael Porter codified Low Price as one of three generic competitive strategies, but it’s not like it wasn’t already commonsense in  every…

Like most people, I enjoy a good positive surprise. Whether that’s something as simple as getting an unexpected discount at the grocery store, snagging a last-minute table at a popular restaurant,…

Salespeople are frequently fixated on athletic metaphors. Try these two: No pain, no gain The harder you try to hit the ball, the worse you do. So – which is it?…

You’re familiar with the old idea that people don’t buy products, they buy solutions – not drill-bits, but holes, in Ted Levitt’s classic formulation. This idea became closely allied with the commonplace…

If there’s one guaranteed head-nod, bromide, platitude that most marketers and salespeople would agree to, it’s that trust in the seller positively affects buyer behavior. Conversely, companies we don’t trust…

Much sales literature talks about sales in terms of processes. A key process element is lead screening, or lead qualification. And that process is often described in terms of efficiency.…

Be honest. When you think of growth and profitability, is trust the first thing you think of? I doubt it. The things that often come to mind when we talk…

Buyer Psychology Ask a client what they want, and they’ll tell you “expertise; credentials; someone who’ll meet my needs.” Ask them what their needs are, and they’ll tell you. But…

Last week I wrote a very critical blogpost about Volkswagen. I was, of course, hardly alone in doing so; the scandal has created tremors beyond even recent examples. But in the days…

A. The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal. Q. What do you get when you assign German engineering the task of developing a high-performance trust-and-ethics violation? If you don’t know the basics of…

I originally wrote this post way back in 2009. And even though it’s been six years – the message is just as relevant. Keeping with the theme of sales and the…

What’s the purpose of selling? Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Try Googling It – you’ll get “the purpose of selling is to gain revenue,” or “the purpose of sales is to…

I first published this post on RainToday a little while back. But this is an evergreen topic – one that keeps coming back up into conversation. Especially when people ask…

You’ve heard the admonition “Always Be Closing.” Should you worry about it? For some of you, the answer may be ‘yes.’ But for many more – fuggedaboutit. Here’s the truth:…

Ever had a difficult client? I don’t mean the client from hell, I just mean garden-variety difficult. Difficult clients come in lots of different flavors. There’s the client who will…

When you think of capitalism, you probably think of competition as a central, driving force. We have enshrined the value of competition in our antitrust laws. We view competition between providers…

This post is a distinctive take on an article originally published on RainToday. —————————————————– When it comes to decoding the thought process behind certain complex business questions, it’s often prudent to…

The dog and pony show, the beauty contest, the shoot-out. You may just call it “the pitch.” The term is especially common in some industries—advertising, executive recruiting, some law firms—but…

It’s a special kind of person who finds his or her way into an expertise-based advisory career. They are, of course, what we call “smart”—meaning cognitively talented, analytical, with high IQs.…

Do your customers trust you? Be honest, now, this is not an in-house survey. Do they believe what you say? Will they cut you a break if you goof up?…

If you’re interested in selling, you might plausibly start with trying to understand how buyers buy. It’s a simple enough question. But then why are there so many answers? Three…

You may know “The Prisoner’s Dilemma.” In game theory, it is a classic conundrum. As Wikipedia states, it “demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in…

Few things in business so dramatically affect customer perception as how you handle pricing – particularly when and how you offer discounts. People may evaluate your products or your service by…

I had a conversation with BigCo., Inc. They want their B2B salespeople to become trusted advisors. They felt (correctly) that greater trust levels with their customers would result in greater…

A free bit of advice to anyone seeking to improve their networking skills, or looking for a true best practice in getting a meeting with someone. And here it is: Comment…

Neil Rackham’s classic SPIN Selling book is famous for many reasons – the depth of research, his clarity of thinking, the deeply commonsensical conclusions he draws. It’s a great book,…

Have a look from the 30,000 foot level at all the sales models on parade. Spread out below you, reaching to the horizon, you’ll find venerable models like Consultative Selling,…

You may be uneducated – but you needn’t advertise the fact. Of course, we all understand typos – though the sight of them uncorrected on a blogpost suggests serious amateurism. But what’s…

One of the (mixed) blessings of being a published author is that other aspiring authors send you manuscripts to review (with the hope I’ll promote them). I try to respond…

A big Trust Matters welcome to Ago Cluytens, whose guest blogpost follows. Ago is not only a sales expert, but also a past buyer of B2B and consultative services–he has worked…

This post was originally published on The Get Real Project. — I got a rejection letter recently from a committee for one of those mega-conferences, letting me know my speaker…

“Hands up, don’t shoot,” became a chanted slogan for outraged protesters after Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Missouri. There was considerable mainstream media skepticism from the beginning about whether Mr. Brown actually had…

Most casual readers of the general press know three things: crime is up, public safety is down, and trust is declining. The problem is: the first two are flat out…

I lost my wallet. Somewhere between a golf driving range and a supermarket, in a 30-minute period, it went missing. I turned things upside down, retraced my paths, left notes…

UPDATE 9:30PM Feb 10: Since this post was first written, NBC News has suspended Brian Williams for 6 months. This will only heighten the buzz around something really not all…

Q. What should you say when the potential customer says, “Before we start discussions, I need you to tell me your price.” A. Tell them your price. What a concept. I…

It’s that time of year again. Resolutions come in full swing and we all start to assess how we can improve on the last year. It just so happens that…

Has your trust ever been violated? Did someone, once upon a time, abuse your trust? Have you ever placed your trust in someone or something, only to discover – painfully…

Some of you may be familiar with the CBS TV series The Mentalist, starring Golden Globe nominee Australian Simon Baker.  The lead character, Patrick Jane, is a consultant to law enforcement…

I was recently chatting with a good friend, Mark Hurwich, about some of the struggles we encounter when it comes to walking into a sales meeting. I think Mark hit the…

I read an awful lot written about the role of value creation in sales, and I think it’s often misconstrued. So here’s a provocative statement: People don’t buy your value…

This is part 3 of a three-part series. If your organization offers multiple service offerings, you may find this series of interest. Part 1 – What’s at Stake Part 2…

This is part 2 of a three-part series. If your organization offers multiple service offerings, you may find this series of interest. Part 1 – What’s at Stake Part 2…

This is part 1 of a three-part series. Part 1 – What’s at Stake Part 2 – What Goes Wrong Part 3 – How to Get it Right If your…

Trust has been a main discussion point for most of my career. Trust in business, trust in selling, trust in relationships. Increasingly, people are discussing how trust in business and in…

A workshop participant recently said something that instantly took me back a few decades. I remember feeling exactly as he described it: What am I supposed to do? On the…

This week sees the publication of a new book I want to bring to your attention. It’s by Frank Cespedes, a professor at Harvard Business School, and an old friend…

Today’s guest post is from June Gunter, Ed. D. and CEO of TeachingHorse, LLC. —————- I am the Co-Founder and CEO of TeachingHorse, LLC. TeachingHorse provides leadership development and coaching…

Jacob Morgan is the author of the newly released, The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization (Wiley). He is also the principal…

I’m starting to believe that the biggest obstacle to increasing trust in business is the conceptual confusion that exists around trust itself. We literally cannot agree on what we are talking…

I heard it again today. I hear it in almost every workshop I do, and in every – bar none – big company sales organization I work with.  It sounds…

It began with a trip to an Audi dealership. I liked what I saw, and was ready to buy. Then the dealer ran the CARFAX report. I’d had a side-bump accident…

Neuroscience is the hot new kid on the science block. And not without reason; the ability to map the brain’s inner workings offers huge medical potential. But along the way, neuroscientists…

Everyone knows how to complete this sentence – “Trust these days is __up __down.” You can’t throw a brick into the Googlenets these days without hitting some survey that bemoans…

The Summer of Love – early 1967, to be precise – was a high point in 60s-era ideology, when reality seemed to match the hype. Shortly after, things began to fall apart.…

This is a guest post from old friend Jim Monk. Jim is a Texan by way of MIT who now grows coffee in Hawaii. H also writes great travelogues. He sent…

From James Edsberg, guest-posting on BeatonCapital Down Under, comes a curious 10-point blogpost – The Trusted Advisor: R.I.P.  Edsberg says, “It’s time to drop the tired phrase of ‘Trusted Advisor’ from…

When I wrote The Trusted Advisor with David Maister and Rob Galford a few years back, it became reasonably successful within several months. (Amazingly, it still ranks #8,050 – as…

We often think of ‘management’ as black and white. It’s not. I’m delighted to welcome Jurgen Appelo, one of Europe’s finest management writers, to Trust Matters, to finely articulate some shades…

Jill Konrath has made a name for herself as one of today’s top thought-leaders in sales. A well-known author & speaker, Jill seems to be just about everywhere these days, and…

In my last post I wrote about the silos that exist between and within business and academia when it comes to trust. There are few subjects outside philosophy for which…

I’m back from a four-day Conference on Institutional Trust at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where I was one of only two non-academics (the other a most talented Federal judge…

It’s no secret that I’ve been a contributing author at RainToday for many years. In that time, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate and connect with many thought-provoking professionals. Last…

“Now our global sales team can create customer relationships instantly from anywhere.” Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of YELP, in an ad for the Salesforce1 Mobile App in the Economist. “Run your…

Right after Michael Lewis’s 60-Minutes appearance to promote his new book Flash Boys I wrote a blogpost about it. The next day I received a phone call from a retail stock broker. His tone…

I spoke recently with Brian Sommer, President of Vital Analysis, a technology resource firm. He had some insights about what’s happened to sales since the recession. Almost all of it…

Maybe your firm would like to sell to XYZ company and it turns out you have a college classmate who works there.  Maybe you’ve become friendly with someone in a…

Michael Lewis’s new book Flash Boys goes on sale at Amazon this morning, March 31. The headline, as he put it in Sunday’s exquisitely timed CBS 60 Minutes – “The stock market is rigged.”…

(This post first appeared on RainToday.com) Value propositions are unquestionably important in B2B sales, especially for large, complex, or intangible offerings. Some suggest a value proposition is the key component…

(And Why Some Women Don’t Trust Men, And How to Break The Vicious Cycle) Nobody, it seems, wants to talk about one of the most important dynamics of the modern…

In my last post, Building the Trust-based Organization Part I, I suggested that approaches to trust at the organizational level fell into several categories. Like the parable of the blind men and…

Do your eyes glaze over at that title? Mine do. I always click on such titles, but am usually disappointed when I get what feels like low-content or high fluff-quotient…

I recently got to meet Stephanie Olexa, a renaissance woman whose most recent incarnation is as an executive coach, at her company Lead to the Future. She has quite a…

Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am. The pet-owners prayer. Sammy was nearly 15 years old when he departed this world in our arms Saturday morning. My…

It’s a compelling headline: Stop Trusting Yourself.  By Northeastern University psychologist David DeSteno, it’s featured in today’s NYTimes, and ostensibly shows that we mistakenly trust ourselves – that if anything, we…

If that title reminds you of a Bill Clintonism, that’s no accident. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today joined Mr. Clinton as a recipient of the PTSA (Politicians’ Tortured Syntax Award).…

Happy New Year! I wrote a good blog post at this time seven years ago, and haven’t improved on it yet. Here it is again. Happy New Year. —————– My…

The votes are in! Your votes, that is – the votes you made with your ‘feet.’ From Sales and Leadership to Neuroscience and Shakespeare, we covered a wide range this…

Eric Uslaner is perhaps the world’s leading authority on social trust. He was recently much in the news, as he is every year, with the annual publication of the General Social…

This is my take on Lifehacker’s This Is How I Work Series. I was invited by Anthony Iannarino to follow up his post on the same subject. Hope you enjoy it. Location: West…

Like trust, integrity is something we all talk about, meaning many different things, but always assuming that everyone else means just what we do.  That leads to some vagueness and…

Suppose you’re a high school administrator in a metropolitan area. Your district has the opportunity to use a number of iPads at subsidized rates to help in the students’ education.…

Ed Reed is an NFL veteran defensive safety with an outstanding record of performance. But it’s not just physical prowess that gives him his edge – it’s mental too. And I’m…

Jeff Shore talks about being bold in the face of discomfort – a subject that quickly got my attention. Jeff is a sales expert, speaker, author and executive coach. He…

Today is the opening of Dreamforce – this year’s grandest ever annual event bySalesforce.com.  Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg, Marc Benioff, Vivek Kundra, Wayne Dyer, and many more will appear at the Moscone Center and…

This is an abridged version of the opening chapter – “The Business Case for Trust” – of the just-published  Trust, Inc.: Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Value Asset.  The…

Let’s get tactical. Friend Mark runs a small coaching business, mainly by himself.  He focuses on an intersection of personal and business development issues: helping people get unstuck. The usual approaches to…

In 2013, finance is the least trusted industry globally. It hasn’t always been this way. Within the industry, it’s tempting to think that trust can be regained by reputation management. Reputation is…

Trust is a subject full of wise-sounding sayings that often just reflect muddled thinking. “Trust takes time” is one such case. Another is that trust can be destroyed in an instant.…

George Orwell’s famed 1984  was written in 1948 – 36 years ahead of the title’s date. The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey  was written in 1968 – 33 years ahead of its title.…

I got to know Barbara and Jordan Kimmel some years ago when they were forming the initial idea for what became Trust Across America, an organization devoted to improving corporate trustworthiness.…

This is the final post in a four-part series on Fear in Selling.  In the first part, I talked about the importance of dealing with fear in sales. In the second part,…

This is the third article in a four-part series on Fear in Selling.  In the first part, I talked about the importance of dealing with fear in sales. In the second part,…

There are many ways to think about sales and selling. You can focus on value propositions, sales processes, sales management, motivation, techniques, and models. In this blogpost series,  I focus…

This is the first of a four-part blogpost series. In Part 2, we’ll discuss the 4 types of fear. In Part 3, I’ll go over how to fend off the…

The headlines, surveys and news stories are everywhere. Trust is down – in world leaders, in legislatures, in financial institutions, doctors, even religious leaders and educators. It is very, very…

Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans. –Spock in ‘I, Mudd’ Star Trek’s  iconic Mr. Spock was half-Vulcan, half-human. It’s the former we first…

It’s the opening to dozens of gangster movies. The mob guy with a rakish hat and a sneer sidles into the hard-working good citizen’s retail establishment, knocks some cigarette ash…

Many of us go around repeating a mantra that we think is self-evidently correct: Under-promise and over-deliver, we say. Always exceed expectations. There is a website ExceedAllExpectations.  Another website, HowTo.gov, tells governmental…

Sometimes we don’t think right. Often we don’t think right, and we don’t even notice it. (This is well-described in a book called Blind Spot, by Banaji and Greenwald). People in…

Business travelers know the taxi expense fiddle. You ask the taxi driver for a receipt. He winks at you and gives you a blank form, implying you can fill it…

Noel Burch is credited with formulating the Four Stages of Competence model. It describes the psychological states involved in a progression of competence, as in: 1. Unconscious Incompetence 2. Conscious Incompetence 3. Conscious…

Credibility is one piece of the bedrock of trust. If people doubt what you say, all else is called into doubt, including competence and good intentions. If others don’t believe…

I was grocery shopping Saturday. It was 2PM, 96 degrees out – pretty hot for New Jersey – and I was in the checkout line. The cashier had started sliding my purchases through…

We’ve all read tales of corporate wrongdoing – think Bernie Madoff, Enron, LIBOR. In most cases, managers engaged in nefarious behavior, knowing they were doing wrong. There are a few…

We should all do the right thing. Yet the wrong thing often gets done. Indeed, you can’t always trust everyone to do the right thing. And so we have evolved enforcement…

My last three posts – here, and here, and here – were about why we don’t trust companies. To review the bidding, I’ve said it’s because: Trust is predominantly personal in nature – a fact…

This is the third in a four-part series about why we don’t trust companies. The final post will offer solutions. In the first and second posts, I said trust in companies is so low…

Yesterday I wrote about three fundamental reasons that most companies aren’t trusted: trust is mainly personal, most companies don’t understand trust, and they make bad choices of tools to enhance trust. Let’s…

People don’t trust companies very much. Sure, we trust some companies more than others, and sometimes we trust them more than government (sometimes not), but when you think of someone…

Every age has its fads and fashions. Some of them hold up over time – competitive strategy, business process re-engineering, quality circles.  Applying neuroscience to business, I suggest, will not…

In college, I majored in philosophy. I underlined all the important parts in my texbooks – the hard, the empirical, the deductive, the categorical. I underlined about half of each…

One of the more frequent comments I get in talking about being a trusted advisor is this: “We’d love to practice all the things you talk about, Charlie, we agree…

You’ve probably heard “sins of commission, and sins of omission.” It is usually linked to Christian theology, particularly some of the New Testament gospels and Paul’s epistles , but it also has…

I had lunch the other day with Jack S., a client from 5 years ago. At the time, Jack managed a sales organization in the reinsurance business. (If you think…

Some will recall comic Rodney Dangerfield’s catch phrase. Others may remember Aretha Franklin’s iconic spelling, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. When you respect someone, it’s a verb.  When you get respect, it’s a noun. Either way, it…

In sales, you sometimes hear, “They were pursuing an aggressive strategy – aggressively waiting for the phone to ring.” In other words, sometimes you’ve got to take action. Much the…

For many years now I have been a contributing editor at RainToday.com, the premier online resource for professional services sales and marketing. Besides a ton of articles, books, special programs,…

Last week, trust was destroyed. Then it was rebuilt. At least, that’s the party line in all the media and the social buzz channels. But it’s not the whole story.…

Maybe you’ve heard the old line, “Half of advertising dollars are wasted – you just don’t know which half.” Something like that is true in sales – except that you’ve got…

You know the old line, “If you’ve got a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” It means we tend to see the world through our own frames of reference. It’s…

The Associated Press decided to drop the term “illegal immigrant” from its reporting. Their point: the term ‘illegal’ should be applied to actions, but not to persons. It’s the immigration equivalent…

I rarely write blogposts promoting the services we offer. But since we have something new to offer – this is one of those times. Are you involved with issues of…

The NYTimes recently published Salesmen in the Surgical Suite, a look at some questionable sales practices in the US surrounding a robotic surgical technology called the da Vinci Surgical System, a…

This weekend I joined a dozen school buddies for an annual golf outing. Now, I took up golf late in life, which explains why I’m pretty much the worst player…

One of the Holy Icons of marketing is the concept of customer focus. It’s almost always used to signify a good thing, and something that is self-evident – that doesn’t…

In April 2007, the New Yorker published an article by John Calapinto called The Interpreter. It describes Dan Everett, a linguistic researcher who lived for many years with a remote Amazonian…

Please welcome guest-blogger Sonja Jefferson to Trust Matters today. She’s founder of Valuable Content consulting firm, and author of the Valuable Content Marketing book. I have high regard for what…

Several decades ago, when “leadership” became a Big Thing, it was heavily personality-based. It posited Leadership as something done by Leaders, who had learned the art of how to Lead.…

Trust in business has declined in recent years. One reason why can be demonstrated with a bit of math. Assume two streams of income, with a net present value calculation for each.…

Your progress update meeting with the client is scheduled for an hour, starting at 11AM. You’re hopeful it might extend to a lunch invitation. 11AM comes and goes, and the…

A long time ago, in a land far away (known as “Texas”), I once had a consulting client. They operated a chain of convenience stores, and we had been brought…

I always have trouble answering a question I’m often asked: What company does a great job on trust?  Because the answer is some combination of, “it depends on the definition…

If you’re a lawyer, accountant, management consultant, VAR, systems engineer, financial advisor, CRM expert, architect, IT services consultant or even an HR consultant – odds are that you’re ineffective at…

Should you take the risk of mentioning price early on in a sales call?  Should you be candid about your less-than-perfect qualifications for a job?  When you notice the client…

In my last post, I asked the question: If financial services are such a low-trust industry (on average), then why isn’t someone pursuing the obvious differentiation strategy of forming a high-trust…

Differentiation. It’s one of the two generic competitive strategies. You’d think it’s a no-brainer. If everyone sells coffee in supermarkets based on price, invent Starbucks. If water is free from the…

(This post is written jointly with Ago Cluytens, and will appear jointly on both our sites.) Ago: Recently, Charles H Green (I get to call him Charlie) and I had…

King Kong vs. Godzilla. The immeasurable force and the immoveable object. The mountain and Muhammed. To these historic pairings, add Manti Te’o and Lance Armstrong, in the roles of trustor and trustee respectively.  (For…

Oh it’s brutal, all right. But it’s not honest. Real honesty is empathetic.  Here’s how. I suppose you could be honest in a vacuum – but who cares?  Was Robinson…

Dilbert on trust and lying: Scott Adams nails it.  With a sledgehammer, as usual. The pointy-haired boss is ethically clueless, and blatantly so. We all get the joke, much the…

Quickly now – which are the least-trusted professions and occupations?  If you think about it a moment, you’ll probably make pretty good guesses. Now for a tougher one: which profession…

I wrote a good blog post at this time six years ago, and haven’t improved on it yet. Here it is again. Happy New Year. —————– My unscientific sampling says…

It may be hard to imagine, given the horrific events of Newtown Connecticut, but violence of almost all types has been declining rapidly in the US and around the world.…

A lot has been written about trust.  It’s often not clear, however, whether the subject is trustworthiness, or trusting.  If trust in banking is down, does that mean that banks…

You know those exercises where you fall back into a partner’s arms and trust that he or she will catch you?  What if that person is a family member, like…

Periodically, someone does a survey on the trustworthiness of various professions. Last month it was time for Gallup to do their annual poll of “Honesty and Ethical Standards of Professions.”…

Across the pond there’s a slew of interesting and driven professionals making strides towards building a stronger foundation for business–one built heavily on ideas of cultivating trust-based relationships and business…

It’s a temptation that lures almost all marketers and salespeople: the desire to limit and control information to consumers. It seems so obvious – lead with your best attributes, downplay…

The UK press is screaming ‘blue murder’ about the recent turn of events in the BBC: ‘How to restore trust in the BBC’ ‘You don’t trust us – and maybe…

Well, well. You saw the title, right?  And yet here you are, reading this blogpost. Worse yet – you’re probably here reading this blogpost because you saw the title warning…

I clicked on the Time Warner Cable Live Chat Support box. Here is the actual transcript of what followed. ——— We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait…

Guest blogging is a valid and potentially powerful strategy for getting your message out and increasing your audience. Danny Iny, for example, teaches people very well how to do it.…

I’m in Munich for a one-day stopover en route to Bucharest. I left New York a day earlier than planned to avoid Hurricane Sandy. And I’m realizing yet again –…

Yesterday was the official publication date of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s new book, The Impact Equation: Are You Making Things Happen, or Just Making Noise? They are doing some cool promotion for the…

The goal of most selling is to make the sale. The goal of trust-based selling is to help the customer; the sale is an outcome, not a goal. In trust-based selling,…

How can you measure trust? Consider a simple equation: Trusting  x  Trusted  =  Trust In other words: if someone is trusting enough to take a risk (the trustor), and if…

NBC News White House correspondent Chuck Todd made some news himself the other day – but it’s not what you think.  He made a contribution to the analysis of trust.  To see why,…

Remember all those curmudgeonly quips about how online “friends” were cheapening the real thing? How the Facebook generation was mistaking true friendship for the faux, virtual kind? Can we finally…

Would you risk your company’s reputation in an attempt to save what amounts to 0.16% of your annual revenue? The owners of the NFL franchises have spent decades building the…

Trust in the Media is Down.  Again, still, more. Gallup is out with a new poll, showing that 60% of the US population “have little or no trust in the mass…

The term “financial advisor” covers a wide range of activity, from insurance sales to asset manager to broker to financial planner, and many more. Both providers and consumers of financial…

The biggest problem in sales? Violating the laws of human nature. Exhibit A: one of those timeless folk-wisdom sayings, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make…

Most people usually don’t think of empathy as having much business value. In fact, you might think if you start empathizing with your clients, you’ll lose your edge; you’ll appear…

High Frequency Trading is in the news again. HFT is highly computerized stock trading, which secures faster execution for bigger computers located physically closer to the stock exchange. It now…

Perhaps you heard: half of a 250-person undergraduate class at Harvard has been accused of cheating on an exam. Here are: Basic early reporting on the case from the Harvard Crimson;…

We hear it all the time. Trust in banking is down. Trust in Congress is down. Trust in the educational system is down. We hear these statements, we say, ‘tut-tut…

“I am resigning in order to spend more time with my family.” That is what we hear from politicians when they depart under a cloud. Lance Armstrong was scarcely more…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on specific ways to lead with trust. Our last story proved that good intentions won’t…

How does a nice gal like Flo end up in a nasty fix like this? Flo is Progressive Insurance’s TV fictional character.  Flo’s twitter handle (come on, you knew Flo has to…

If you want teach someone to bake a cake, you’d give them a recipe. First, do this; then, do this. The result is ‘cake.’ You can be pretty confident of…

Your client asks you for advice. You know the answer. Further – let’s assume you’re absolutely right. You give your client the answer.  And then – your client doesn’t take your…

The Economist recently published an article called Fine and Punishment: The Economics of Crime Suggests that Corporate Fines Should Be Even Higher. It’s fascinating reading: it suggests that we can economically…

This is the ninth in a series called Books We Trust. A devastatingly important book was published last year, one that I think got lost in all the hue and…

[This jointly-written blogpost appears also on Babette Ten Haken’s blog, Sales Aerobics for Engineers] Many Requests for Proposal (RFPs) are well written, and play an important role in the intelligent…

There are really only three things you need to know about trust. You can pretty much deduce the rest. The three parts are: Trust is a Two-player Game Trust Requires…

There are really only three things you need to know about trust. You can pretty much deduce the rest. The three parts are: Trust is a Two-player Game Trust Requires…

There really are only three things you need to know about trust. You can pretty much deduce the rest. I’m going to write about each of them in a separate…

Let me connect a few dots. I’ll start with content marketing, and end up with entry-level minimum wage trusted advisors being advertised on Monster.com. Always Be Publishing Let’s start with…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on specific ways to lead with trust. Our last story told of innovation, trust, and…

Both Andrea Howe and I are experienced bloggers; 15 years and 1500 blogposts between the two of us. We are far less experienced at newsletters and email marketing, but have been dipping…

This is number 11 in a series called Books We Trust. I first met Jacob Morgan a little over a year ago in New York. Appropriately, we had first met…

When you are more virtuous than your reputation would suggest, you have a communications problem. When your reputation for virtue exceeds the facts on the ground, you have a ticking…

Mike O. explains how he came to understand what it means to be a trusted advisor. ————– Getting It Right I had been a consultant for many years. I had a…

Trust is a complex concept in human relationships. In our Chapter 1 of the still-pretty-new The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, we explore ten fundamental attitudes that take aim at the complexities of…

We’ll get to sales. First: “Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. Spring dried out. No water. The Hopi, or the Christian, maybe the Moslem, they pray for rain. The Navajo…

Fear is the root negative human emotion. Scratch the surface of other negative feelings, and you will find fear at the core. Fear Drives Behavior If you accept this description…

Four years and 9 months ago I wrote a blogpost called An Honest Wedding. It was about the nuptials in western Michigan of a cancer patient “Jane,” and the widower…

This is the tenth in a series called Books We Trust. The 3 Power Values is, simply, an excellent book. Author David Gebler’s unique talent is to combine a Big Idea,…

Oh man, did I do something stupid, embarrassing and untrustworthy today. A colleague forwarded me a calendar invite originally sent by a client. I NEVER respond to an actual calendar…

Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon is that Midwestern enclave where: …the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average. Lately, there are curious signs…

It was a beautiful fall in Blacksburg…but I was quite nervous…my senior year in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech was now underway and reality was setting in fast…I had to…

Over the past year, I’ve offered an insider view into the challenges, successes, and make-it-or-break-it moments of seven men and women who are making their mark by leading with trust—every…

At a talk last week, new friend Petter Østberg told me an old story with a new twist. It takes a great sports metaphor for achievement – and steps it…

If you work in a large organization – This Blog’s for You. You know what season is coming soon – you dread it. ‘Tis the season of Planning & Budgeting;…

I’ve got a problem. Once or twice a week, someone approaches me and says: I really like what you do. I do something very similar. We should talk and figure…

I know, it sounds like an oxymoron, a setup line for a cheap joke. Indeed, mortgage brokers got a very bad name during the recent real estate bubble and financial…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on specific ways to lead with trust. Our last story proved that he who eats…

I recently met a first-time author, who gave me a copy of their book. Shortly after, I got an email from the author’s publicist, saying: “…We’d appreciate it if you…

A lot of things can go wrong in sales – and often do. But there’s probably one thing that stands over all the other as the Ur-error of selling. This…

Starting today, I am offering a direct consulting/coaching service – one-on-one with me personally, via email – to a limited number of people. Read more about the program at trustedadvisor.com/econsulting…

A few weeks ago, I was included on a list as a Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencer for 2012. I appreciate that. I’m going to put it on our…

I trust my dog with my life – but not with my ham sandwich. That is but one of dozens of humorous ways to indicate the multiple meanings we attach…

I recently wrote an article in RainToday called How To Annoy Your Client  Without Really Trying, about the excess of customer satisfaction metrics. Wouldn’t you know it – someone disagreed…

The term “trusted advisor” has been around a long time.  Recently I wrote about how the phrase has undergone “trusted advisor inflation” and become far more casually used. When Maister,…

Establishing a trust-based relationship has always been a two-way street. Like a good Argentinean Tango, there has to be a routine where risk and reciprocation are involved. What can you…

The news is much about greed. Greed dominates the headlines, not to mention the content, of what we read in all media. Are we perhaps at the point where the…

The Wall Street Journal this weekend scored a lot of views with an article on Oxytocin titled, “The Trust Molecule,” by Dr. Paul Zak. Dr. Zak makes one critical, powerful…

Ron Prater has worked in government consulting firms for almost 20 years, including three years with Arthur Andersen LLP. In 2007, he set out with partner Alan Pentz to create a…

The Bowdoin Group is a mid-sized executive recruiting firm based in New England. Sean Walker is a partner at Bowdoin, and heads their Information and Media Division. We met over…

We all hear about health care. Usually it’s through the microcosm of someone’s illness, or the macro-view of dueling pundits and politicians. Frequently it’s adversarial, or negative. Thanks to long-time…

What is it that differentiates the moments between when our advice is taken, and when it is not? What can we do to improve the odds of genuinely good advice…

This past weekend I saw A Separation, an Iranian movie with more awards to its credit than a dictator’s military jacket. It deserves every one of them. You’ll never find…

It’s an age-old challenge in the consulting industry: how to get your delivery people to develop more business. After all, who’s in a better position to bring in more work…

Every once in a while I take time off from the World of Trust and write about a hobby, often Mac-related stuff.  Today’s one of those days. I’ve got four…

What are the two most trust-destroying words? An interesting enough question by itself; but even more interesting is just why these two words carry such toxic power. To learn both…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on specific ways to lead with trust. Our last story proved that trust is personal.  But what…

The term “trusted advisor” has undergone some changes since I first co-wrote the book by that title 11 years ago.  Three changes, to be precise: It’s amazing how many more…

One of the more common sayings about trust is, “Trust takes time.” In fact, like several other truisms about trust, it’s far from true. Moreover, the way we use that…

What if everyone could be trusted? And everyone became willing to trust? Unrealistic? Sure, if you insist on all or nothing. But if we moved directionally toward those goals, it’s…

A piece from PharmaVoice caught my eye the other day. Titled Market Capitalization, it talks about how market segmentation can help pharma companies more precisely reach targeted audiences. All well…

On some level, we’re all insecure egomaniacs. We’re not happy unless people are paying attention to us. But at the same time, we get nervous when people pay too much…

We’re very proud to announce that The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook won the Gold Medal in the Business Ethics category in the 5th Annual Axiom Business Book Awards. More about that…

Most corporate discussions about knowledge management (KM) are about databases, software, and IT. One mid-sized law firm I know took a different approach – getting partners to interact over lunch.…

Building trust can be as easy as saying four simple words: Tell Me More, Please. When you ask a client or colleague to tell you more–you are acknowledging that you…

A few hours ago, the New York Times published a blistering Op Ed by Greg Smith, a Goldman Sachs director, titled Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs. It is getting…

I’m going to quote Confucius, something I’d never have done were it not for TAA friend Shaula Evans: “A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows…

A recent Journal of Finance article suggests there’s a high correlation between IQ and participation in the stock market. Now, what does that mean? Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller explores…

Blaming other people is generally recognized as bad behavior. Not much disagreement there. But the flip side of avoiding responsibility is – trying to take responsibility that doesn’t belong to…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on ways to lead with trust. Our last story illustrated how one conversation changed everything. Today’s…

I talked to Joe in San Francisco recently. Joe is 96, living with his daughter and son-in-law Jean and Fred. He talked about what happened when he was 18 years…

We all think lying is bad. Pretty much, mostly, usually. We think of lying as saying something that is not true. But not saying something that is true can get…

The mantra of “attract and retain” has been around the HR community – and its general management constituency – even longer than the unfortunate rush to refer to people as…

We all spend an awful lot of time, money and effort trying to convince others of our attributes. We want them to see us as we imagine that we want…

If your customers and clients tell you they don’t trust you, things have gotten bad. But you could have seen it coming. There were many early-warning signs of low trust…

What is the absolute best single thing you can do to enhance your trustworthiness? Cheap, fast, effective, high return on your investment? I suggest it might simply be this: Return…

Are you part of a low-trust organization? There are a surprising number of symptoms and tip-offs; perhaps the least obvious are in the organization’s products and services. This is fourth…

Low-trust organizations can be spotted in many ways.  This is third in a series of five. In this one, we explore warning signs from leadership. Previous and future posts address…

We want our clients and partners to trust us and so we often focus on what we can do better to appear, and to be, more trustworthy. But even more…

It’s not impossible to find a high-trust team in a low-trust organization – we’ve seen a few – but not too many. For the most part, low-trust organizations are made…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on specific ways to lead with trust. Our last story told a tale of risky…

Low-trust organizations are petri dishes for low growth, profitability, and ultimately survival. Yet the signals are easy to ignore. The canaries in the low-trust coal mine fall into five groups:…

It’s one of the most common problems we all face in business – in sales, in customer relationships, in working with teams.  You’re in the hot seat, on the spot:…

Most people see transparency as a good thing, and disclosure an obvious way to get there.  Often, we don’t distinguish between them. But they’re not the same thing. And confusing…

You probably know the common advice, “Always exceed expectations.” It sounds like a trust-creating move – but it’s not. In fact, it’s a trust-destroyer. Learn more in the Trust-Tip Video…

This is the eighth in a series called Books We Trust. The Decision to Trust is one of the best books written in recent years on trust; it is a…

Many of you know about the Trust Equation – (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-Orientation. Trust research has shown that of the four factors, the one most associated with…

I wrote on my last post about how Siri on the iPhone was just the tip of the iceberg for speech-to-text software. Fine and good, but what about voice-2-text on…

Last summer I wrote about how speech-to-text software may be a killer app. At the time, I mentioned the rumor about what was to become Siri, the “talk to me”…

Rarely will you see someone fail in business who has thoroughly followed these simple suggestions. Those who do fail are typically people who are incapable of being honest – with…

In a piece called Late Bloomers, Malcolm Gladwell describes writer Ben Fountain, who wandered for decades doing research before he became an overnight sensation. By contrast, some writers (Melville, T.…

I wrote a good blog post at this time five years ago, and haven’t improved on it yet. Here it is again. Happy New Year. —————– My unscientific sampling says…

It’s received wisdom by now that you should manage expectations. How could you argue with that? Nobody likes to be surprised on the downside. But as with many platitudes, the…

In Part I, we said health care is a major cause of our declining trust in politicians. Our political inability to find a solution has led to massive economic costs,…

Most of us know that a life of resentment is a life wasted. But how fast can a human being recover from grief, betrayal, anger? Is there a four-minute mile…

That may sound self-evident. But lying isn’t the only way to kill trust. It’s useful to review the bidding, in order to realize just how potent lying is. Then too,…

Stephen M.R. Covey, in his recent Trust Matters interview, notes that politicians rank lowest in trust among all professions. He identifies counterfeit behavior as the underlying cause. He’s right; and…

My oldest son, a cabinet-maker, custom designed and built a cabinet for a customer, who is a contractor and also refers work to him. The customer gave guidance on the…

If you’re in sales or business development, you’ve probably heard the distinction between wants and needs. What’s the difference?  And what’s the role of each to someone buying? I checked…

In 2000, I co-wrote The Trusted Advisor, with David Maister and Rob Galford. At the time, it was aimed largely at external professional services advisors. The word “leadership” appeared exactly…

Andrea Howe and I, as you know, are celebrating this month’s publication of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook.  As it happens, friend-in-trust, Chris Brogan has a book coming out very soon as well–Google+ for…

Charlie Green and I were recently interviewed by Matt Homann of LexThink and the [non]billable hour blog on the subject of trust and the legal profession. Among other things, Matt wanted to…

Sometimes I get annoyed. Usually, that means I’m thinking like an idiot. Sometimes, however, it produces useful ideas. Lately I’m annoyed by the constant repetition of a myth about trust.…

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking in Minneapolis at the annual meeting of the Twin Cities Compensation Network about trust-based relationships from an HR perspective. They were also…

We’re excited about the early success of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust. It’s gotten a #4 ranking on The Washington Post Book World paperback…

John Dunn has worn many hats in his 25 years as a professional including consultant, change management expert, bed and breakfast owner, and most recently, screenwriter. Find out how John…

Anthony Iannarino, creator of The Sales Blog, recently reviewed our new book, The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust. Anthony is a thoughtful subject matter expert…

Ian Brodie is a sales and marketing consultant to professionals. Based in Cheshire, England, Ian’s low-key, self-effacing style belies some deep content mastery. Ian and I crossed paths years ago…

Joe Paterno was the de facto leader of a powerful movement. He thought he could outrun an ethical blemish in his movement, while still preaching the gospel of high values.…

Every day, I’m a little blessed by the interest and thoughtfulness of our readers. Here’s an excerpted email I received this week that got me thinking. The Email Dear Charlie,…

To anyone who doubts the power of social media, I tell them how I came to know David A. Brock. Dave’s resume is old-school – IBM, Tektronix – and I…

Our Story Time series brings you real, personal examples from business life that shed light on specific ways to lead with trust. Our last story told of the upside of…

Charlie and I recently recorded a podcast interview with Mike McLaughlin on the subject of trust and professional services. We covered a lot of ground in 16 minutes, including the…