The TRUST Show

S10E8: Win with TRUST, not Low Price: How to sell more, raise prices, and increase loyalty

Several things happened to me lately that made me focus on one of the branches of that work. At a conference I was speaking at, senior executives approached me and said, “That’s all great, but can we sell more with trust?” To me, the answer was clear, “of course you can! And not only can you sell more with trust, but you can even command higher prices with trust and increase customer loyalty!” Actually, the first book I wrote that had the word “trust” in its title, the first one in the series “Can I TRUST You?” had the subtitle “50+1 habits that will make you a trustworthy salesperson.” The other thing that happened was that within days, Thinkers 360 named me one of the top 50 (actually, #12) global thought leaders on trust AND one of the top 50 (number 17) on customer loyalty for 2023. And the last thing that happened was that I saw a significant increase in demand for one of my keynotes: win with trust, not low price: how to sell more, raise prices, and increase loyalty. 

So, in this episode, I will start with some of the higher-level, more strategic perspectives on why trust is so important for sales. In later episodes, I will go “down and dirty” into specific tips about being a more trusted salesperson. 

S10E7: What Horses Can Teach us About TRUST: With Guest Addison Gagliano

When talking about trust, I typically talk about people trusting people. But in this episode, I’ll talk about trust between people and horses, and not only that, but actually what we can learn from this relationship about trust between people. My guest today is Addison Gagliano. She trains kids to ride and horses to be ridden. She teaches the horse to listen to and trust people. We recorded this episode right after Addison gave me a demonstration of her techniques, and I can tell you that it was impressive. At the end of the interview, she told me that learning how to read horses helped her learn how to read people better. Better than many of us.

There was one more thing I needed to say about her… What was it?... Oh, now I remember. Addison is 15 years old.

S10E6: What does “Resume Gap” have to do with TRUST?

Sometimes a candidate would have a gap in their resume. A few years that are accounted for. There could be many reasons for that gap. Should a hiring manager ask about it? It is none of their business? This episode gives advice to both a hiring manager and to a candidate on how to address that resume gap in a way that builds trust, and doesn't kill it. And it uses my relative trust model. 

S10E5: Building Trust in the Spotlight: How to Become a Trusted Professional Speaker

I applied my relative trust model and trust habit process to many different jobs, roles, and relationships, but somehow I never applied it to my own profession: public speaking. In 2020, I gave a speech at the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) annual conference. When I prepared for that, I found a few interesting things: one, I found a CNBC article that, based on a survey, found that the 6^th most stressful job in America is an event coordinator. Two, I conducted my own survey and asked what is the biggest concern for event planners. At the top place, with a significant distance from the second place, was “dependency on other people.” Think about an event planner. Planning an event for 5,000 people (I spoke at events like that). The speaker doesn’t show up. Or delivers less than the 5,000 participants expected, and they keep talking about how the keynote speaker bombed. Do you want to be that event planner? Event planners have to trust the speakers. How can we, professional speakers, help them trust us? That’s what I will cover in this episode.

S10E4: TRUST, Influence, and Bridging the Political Divide

You are influenced only by people you trust, and you can influence only people who trust you. When you don’t try to build trust, you will not be able to influence. Or be influenced. This episode discusses the link between trust and influence. It will explain why the political divide we have today prevents us from reaching win-win compromises and how to bridge it using the components of the relative trust model. 

S10E3: Balancing Procrastination with TRUST: 8 Habits to Become a Trusted Procrastinator

Are you a procrastinator? If you are, wasn’t your first reaction to be defensive? Procrastination has a bad reputation. You can find countless articles about how NOT to be a procrastinator. How to eliminate procrastination. Even how to cure it. As if procrastination is a disease. 
I’m a procrastinator and will wear that as a badge of honor. And not because I feel the need to be politically correct. If you know me well enough, you know there is a fat chance of that…
It’s because I believe procrastination is good! But for the right people and in the appropriate circumstances. 
But there is a problem still. A trust problem. With non-procrastinators. Because non-procrastinators don’t trust procrastinators. 
In this article/episode, I will discuss the good and the bad of procrastination, explain why non-procrastinators don’t trust procrastinators, but most importantly—I will give you 8 tips that will help you, a procrastinator, be trusted by non-procrastinators. 

S10E2: Sell on TRUST and not on Price: 7 Tips that will make you a more trusted salesperson

What percentage of calls or emails you get are spam? Don’t bother checking. As of January 2023, the US received the highest number of spam emails, at 8.6 billion daily. Spam accounts for 71% of all emails. A typical American gets 28.4 spam calls monthly. I must be getting more than that. These numbers are continuously increasing.

Since the level of trust I have in people trying to sell me something is the product of my trustfulness (my willingness to trust salespeople in general) and the salesperson’s trustworthiness, and my trustfulness continues to decline, the only way to be able to close deals is if you increase your trustworthiness.

Stop trying to close deals by lowering the price. Try doing it by increasing your trustworthiness.

In this episode, I will give you 7 tips on how to be a more trusted salesperson. Those are not the usual tips you might get from a sales trainer or expert. But those relate specifically to building trust in you.

S10E1: Building Bridges from Afar: 8 Actions to Nurture Trust in the Remote Work Environment

If there is one shift in how we work that resulted from the COVID pandemic, it’s that we embraced the possibility of working remotely or hybrid, where some work is done remotely and some at the office. I visited that topic in season 8, episode 5 of this podcast, but it has been 6 months since then, and I learned and thought more about it.

Obviously, the first question that comes to mind is what remote or hybrid work does to productivity. Obviously, if it hurts productivity, we shouldn’t embrace it. At the same time, if it increases productivity, we certainly should. Looking at research revealed results in both directions, which is troubling by itself and caused me to wonder how accurate and free of confirmation bias that research is. But the most revealing study was one done by Microsoft in late 2022. When asked whether remote work increases productivity, 87% of EMPLOYEES said it did, but only 12% of LEADERS agreed. So, I guess it depends on who you ask…

Working remotely also has trust implications. It relies on trust, but it also affects trust.

The purpose of this episode is not to prove whether remote or hybrid work increases productivity or not or even to prove the relationships with trust. It’s to give 8 specific pieces of advice on how to maintain and even grow trust while working remotely or hybrid.

S9E12: The Body Language of TRUST

Body language, or non-verbal communication, plays a major role in building trust. That’s why the component of intimacy accelerates positivity. As long as our body language is consistent with the words we use, people trust us. On the opposite side, as Albert Mehrabian said in his 1971 book Silent Messages, “When our words contradict the silent messages contained within them, others mistrust what we say.” So, it could accelerate trust but also prevent trust.

This episode is one of those episodes in which I bring a guest who know and who cares. Today, I have Melinda Marcus, an expert and consultant on influence and nonverbal communication. We will talk about how much control we have over our body language and how good are we at interpreting it. We will talk about the relationship between working remotely, body language, and, of course, trust. We are going to have a great conversation about body language and trust. (as well as other things).

S9E11: 7 TRUST Insights

My framework for Trust Habits® includes the 8 laws of trust and the 6-component relative trust model. But from them, there are 7 insights about trust, which are shared in some detail here in this episode. Those are:

(1) Trust turns a group of creative and productive individuals into a creative and productive team.
(2) Trust is Relative. The same behavior that would cause one person to trust you could cause another to distrust you.
(3) My trust in you is the product of my trustfulness (willingness to trust people) and your trustworthiness.
(4) Your trustworthiness is made of who you are and what you do when you interact with me
(5) If you trust someone, and you show them that you trust them, they will behave in a trustworthy way.
(6) If you eliminate one bad behavior, you will increase your trustworthiness more than if you add one good behavior.
(7) Forming a habit takes as long as it takes until it is easier to continue than to stop it, and you don’t need extrinsic motivation anymore.