One key skill in sales is understanding people. Specifically, what they need, what they fear, and what they are frustrated about. And for 20% of them, also their dreams.

80% want their needs met and get rid of risks and frustrations.
20% want acceleration in building bigger things.

Recently I observed a sprint team of four (CEO, Ops, Sales, Marketing). Now the meeting was pretty transactional and the salesperson in the room was clearly frustrated and driving stress in everyone. The entire room was tense. Then, almost like a scene from a movie, the CEO bounded into the room with a big smile on his face, said something quite funny, asked a few people a couple of personal update questions about their families and told the room how proud he was to work with such amazing leaders. Everything shifted in an instant.

That is emotional contagion. Now due to how our brain chemistry is activated and modulated by other people, we begin to catch the emotion that others are throwing off around us. You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you?

When you're around positive, upbeat, encouraging people you can't help but feel the same way. Conversely, when you're around stressful, negative people, you find yourself catapulted into the city of pity.

Now.. every agency owner wants trust.

But Simon what can I actually DO to build trust?

I am glad you ask…

There are three critical drivers to trust that will help you not only gain trust faster, but sustain it over the long run with your team and with customers.

The first is integrity. People like to be around people who are genuine, honest and transparent. It activates areas of the brain that release endorphins that make us feel good and we then subconsciously attribute that feeling to you, which makes us trust you more. This is why it's so critical to stay real and transparent, than as the more stress you feel, the more self-preservation kicks in and then your outward energy or your attitude will reflect that inward anxiety, which spills over to your customer. So be real. Take a moment before each meeting to reflect what you are thinking. Breathe and connect to your true being. I boil a cup of tea. Find your ritual that helps you have a quick “real-time” with yourself. This will set you up for the right attitude when you get in front of your customer. Get yourself back into abundance before every meeting. And as we like to say at Strategy Sprints, bring yourself in a state where success is inevitable. Fast like a cheetah and happy like a dog.

Next up is caring. Your integrity will go a long way, but you have to demonstrate trustworthiness consistently over time. Show your customer they weren't just a target that you were trying to close, rather, a partner that you are willing to invest in. Show up under any weather condition. Add value to them in tangible ways that may not bring any obvious value to you. For example, send them articles about their areas of interest, things like that, a nice thank you card even. An introduction to someone in your network that can help them with an area you heard them mention that they're struggling with. You get the idea. On the practical side of caring, simply show up on time and stay on their agenda. Consistency in caring leads to the customer's perception of the final driver, reliability.

Now results checks that credibility or professional trust box. Nothing shapes culture more than winning. Doing what you say you will do and doing so repeatedly over time will show your customer that they can count on you. When you prove yourself reliable your customer will continue to return to you for answers time after time after time.

⛲️ SUMMARY
Integrity, caring and results are the perfect ingredients to earn trust faster and allows you to keep it over the long haul. As an agency owner, these 3 things are worth focusing on. This week.

That’s it for today. Repeat this process and you are an agency owner that is on the path to financial freedom.

My next article will be about trust in the context of AI and why Tesla will 3x from here.

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Simon Severino helps agency owners automate 85% of their B2B sales. He is the CEO of Strategy Sprints and Host of the top 2,5% podcast called "Strategy Sprints". He created the Strategy Sprints™ Method that doubles revenue in 90 days by getting owners out of the weeds. Simon teaches Certified Strategy Sprints™ Coaches to scale agencies via better systems. As a member of SVBS (Silicon Valley Blockchain Society) he enables cross-stage capital flows and helps minimize execution risks in tech scale ups. His team is trusted by Google, Consilience Ventures, BMW, Roche, Amgen, AbbVie and hundreds of frontier teams. He is a TEDx speaker, and has appeared on over 800 podcasts. He writes for Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine about scaling digital agencies.