144 Tips on Trust: The Great # Countdown

Last week we announced “The Trusted Advisor FieldBook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust,” a new book written by myself and Andrea Howe in partnership with Wiley Books.

As part of the build-up to the book, we started a series of Daily Trust Tips, one per business day, counting down until publication day, October 31. You can access these daily trust tips on Twitter, by using the hashtag (or pound sign) followed by TrustTip. Like this: #TrustTip

Andrea Howe and I alternately publish the tip du jour every weekday at 8:30AM EST; then whichever isn’t tweeting will re-tweet within the hour. You find us on Twitter at @AndreaPHowe and @CharlesH.Green. Or, you can simply do a twitter search on #TrustTip. That way you can easily spot the whole series at any time.

The Tips

We try to stay away from platitudes. They’re meant to be precise and provocative, things you can apply today to enhance your trustworthiness and build stronger, more trusting relationships.

And if that still isn’t enough to motivate you to get on twitter, then every two weeks or so we’ll publish the most recent TrustTips here on this blog. Here they are, plus a few bonus thoughts.

Trust Tips Redux: #144 – #135

#144 Find out what your client’s customers like best about your client.

#143 Subscribe to 7 Google Alerts: some about your customers, some about their industry.

#142 Develop 5 great customer questions: Ask a partner to pick the top 3 from your list. Use them.

#141 When you present, practice in front of the mirror 4 times. Seriously! 4 times! You’ll get more relaxed.

#140 How much personal time: Hours, $: will you invest this year in you?

#139 Find out where you best customer went to high school. Don’t flaunt it; just learn it.

#138 Host an event that brings key stakeholders together; you be the moderator.

#137 When the customer asks you the price, tell them. Straight away. No hem, haw, wait. Answer the question.

#136 When you tell a story: refer to 3 of the 5 senses in telling it. It’ll make it more memorable.

#135 Don’t walk in without a point-of-view. It doesn’t have to be right; it does have to be thoughtful.

Here’s a couple of my favorites:

# 140, for example. Part of Google’s success clearly lies in happy, engaged employees. If you don’t work for Google, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little google for yourself. Reinvesting in yourself gives you a break from the daily grind. Feeling comfortable with your position, your team, and your bosses allows you to be more relaxed when faced with difficult situations. When your job is more than where you punch in and punch out, you can be there for your customers. Customers will then look to you as someone who has their best interests in mind—and begin to believe that you might actually care about their goals.

# 137. Almost all price problems are of our own creation. Every reason we concoct for being reticent—don’t quote price until they’ve heard value, etc.—just resonates with the client as obfuscation and avoidance. What’s he hiding? Why can’t he answer a direct question? Any financial planner will tell you, clients find it easier to talk about their sex lives than to talk about money; and any salesperson who appears hesitant is immediately causing suspicion. It’s so easy: just answer the question, and if they don’t ask it, put it out there. It’s a relevant fact; and oddly enough, you get credit for being forthright in mentioning it, simply because no one else will!

Which ones did you find most meaningful?

We’ll be publishing more #TrustTip next week and every week to book publication. Share the wealth; tell others about #TrustTip—new tips posted every weekday at 8:30AM.