The Fastest Way to Build Trust With Any Client | Andy Elliott - Andy Elliott's Elite Mindset Motivation and Sales Training

Podcast Summary: Andy Elliott's Elite Mindset Motivation and Sales Training

Episode Title: The Fastest Way to Build Trust With Any Client
Host: Andy Elliott
Release Date: June 10, 2025

In this compelling episode of Andy Elliott's Elite Mindset Motivation and Sales Training, Andy dives deep into the essential strategies for building trust with clients swiftly and effectively. Drawing from his extensive experience as the CEO of The Elliott Group, Andy offers actionable insights that cater to both novice and seasoned sales professionals aiming to enhance their relational prowess and close sales more consistently.

1. Understanding the Power of Linking

Timestamp: [00:03] – [04:15]

Andy begins by emphasizing the concept of "linking"—the foundational connection between a salesperson and a client. He compares it to a link in a bracelet: "If you break a link on a bracelet, there's no more bracelet." Similarly, a single strong link between salesperson and client can solidify the entire relationship, making it indispensable.

Andy Elliott [00:30]: "If you break a link on a bracelet, there's no more bracelet. If you want to learn how to sell and close everyone, you must understand there is a link between what that person has going on in their life and what you have going on in your life that will link you together."

Andy outlines that effective linking goes beyond superficial commonalities like shared favorite sports teams. Instead, it delves deeper into meaningful connections that foster trust and mutual respect.

2. The Pillars of Engagement

Timestamp: [04:16] – [15:45]

Engagement is the next critical component Andy explores. He defines engagement as the way salespeople communicate, build rapport, and encourage clients to open up about their lives.

Andy Elliott [05:20]: "Engagement is the way that you talk to people, the way that we communicate, the way that we're going to build a rapport with them."

Andy stresses the importance of getting the prospect interested in you, not just in your product or company. This personal interest lays the groundwork for discovering the unique links that bind you and your client.

Key Strategies for Effective Engagement:

Be a Good Speaker: Mastery in communication ensures that clients are not only listening but also valuing what you have to say.

Andy Elliott [06:10]: "You gotta be a good speaker."
Find the Little Links: Beyond major connections, identifying smaller, relatable aspects can strengthen the overall relationship.
Make Them Chase You: Position yourself as a mentor and someone worth admiring, ensuring clients seek your expertise.
Use Questions to Engage: Andy highlights the power of asking questions to encourage clients to talk about themselves, fostering a more profound connection.

Andy Elliott [10:45]: "People love talking about themselves. So engage with questions."
Initiate the Smile: A simple smile can set a positive tone, making clients feel welcomed and comfortable.

Andy Elliott [12:30]: "Initiate the smiling first. They'll follow."

3. Building Relational Capital

Timestamp: [15:46] – [25:30]

Moving beyond mere transactions, Andy introduces the concept of relationship capital—the value derived from genuine relationships built over time.

Andy Elliott [18:05]: "Relationship capital is the most valuable currency in the world."

He advises salespeople to prioritize building friendships and long-term relationships over single sales, as this approach leads to multiple sales and valuable referrals.

Essential Elements:

Be Personable and Relatable: Speak with familiarity as if you've known the client your whole life.

Andy Elliott [19:50]: "Talk to everyone that you talk to for the rest of your life, whether you've known them or not, like you've known them your whole life."
Create a Relaxed Atmosphere: Stress can hinder the sales process. Andy underscores the importance of making clients feel at ease.

Andy Elliott [21:15]: "It's my job to create the environment. Make it relaxing."
Avoid Being Transactional: Focus on mutual care and respect rather than viewing interactions as mere exchanges.

Andy Elliott [23:00]: "Don't be transactional. We don't care about each other. It's like, it's a transaction."

4. Mastering the Art of Rapport

Timestamp: [25:31] – [35:00]

Rapport is the backbone of any successful sales strategy. Andy outlines practical steps to establish and maintain rapport with clients from the very first interaction.

Andy Elliott [27:45]: "Establish rapport. Do all these things really well and you can do less rapport and be closer to them."

Techniques to Enhance Rapport:

Ask Personal but Appropriate Questions: Start conversations with inquiries about where clients live or grew up to get them talking.

Andy Elliott [28:30]: "I begin conversations... asking people where they live or where they grew up."
Share Personal Stories: Andy narrates a relatable story about the power of smiling to illustrate how simple actions can change perceptions.

Andy Elliott [32:15]: "I walked by and smiled at her. And there we are, we're playing this little game."
Stay Away from Controversial Topics: To maintain a positive interaction, avoid discussions about religion and politics.

Andy Elliott [33:50]: "Stay away from religion and politics. It's personal rule."

5. The Importance of First Impressions

Timestamp: [35:01] – [45:20]

Andy delves into the significance of first impressions in the sales process. He emphasizes that clients begin judging salespeople from the moment they meet them, even before any conversation starts.

Andy Elliott [36:10]: "The customer is judging you from the moment they meet you."

He advises sales professionals to present their best selves from the outset to set a positive tone for the entire interaction.

Andy Elliott [40:00]: "Earn the right for people to say yes and buy from you. You got to earn the right to ask someone to buy from you."

6. Overcoming Common Sales Pitfalls

Timestamp: [45:21] – [55:30]

Addressing common mistakes, Andy criticizes salespeople who fail to build real connections, instead opting to push products superficially.

Andy Elliott [46:50]: "The worst thing you can do is start out a meeting or a conversation about you or your company's background."

He encourages self-reflection among sales professionals to identify and correct flaws in their approach, ensuring they prioritize client engagement over self-promotion.

7. Measuring Sales Mastery

Timestamp: [55:31] – [1:05:00]

Andy redefines sales mastery not by the number of sales closed but by the quality of relationships built that lead to multiple sales and referrals.

Andy Elliott [56:40]: "The measure of mastering sales is in creating relationships and friendships that end in multiple sales and referrals."

He reinforces the idea that successful sales depend heavily on personal engagement and the ability to connect deeply with clients.

8. Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Timestamp: [1:05:01] – End

In his concluding remarks, Andy motivates listeners to internalize and practice the techniques discussed. He reiterates the paramount importance of finding and nurturing the links with clients to stand out in the competitive sales landscape.

Andy Elliott [1:04:50]: "Love you guys. See you in the next video."

Key Takeaways:

Linking: Establish deep, meaningful connections beyond superficial similarities.
Engagement: Prioritize getting clients interested in you and your communication style.
Relational Capital: Build and value long-term relationships over one-time transactions.
Rapport: Use personal questions and maintain a friendly demeanor to build trust.
First Impressions: Present your best self from the outset to set a positive tone.
Avoid Common Mistakes: Focus on client needs rather than self-promotion.
Measure Mastery by Relationships: Success is determined by the strength and depth of client relationships leading to sustained business growth.

Andy Elliott's insights in this episode provide a roadmap for sales professionals aiming to elevate their skills by fostering genuine connections and building trust with clients. By embracing these principles, listeners can transform their sales approach, leading to more meaningful interactions and greater success in their endeavors.

Transcript

A (0:03)

Okay, guys, here we are. This is going to be a video about linking. And you may say. What did you say? L I N K I N G Like a link. Like a link on a bracelet. If you break a link on a bracelet, what happens? There's no more bracelet. If you want to learn how to sell and close everyone, you must understand there is a link between what that person has going on in their life and what you have going on in your life that will link you to together. That's the magic. No one ever teaches this stuff, but now you're learning it. And by the way, the way I'm going to explain it to you, it will help you really dominate. So engagement. What does that mean? Engagement. The way that you talk to people, the way that we communicate, the way that we're going to build a rapport with them. Everything that we're going to do, the way that they're going to tell us about their life, the way they're going to open up to us. That's engagement. Okay, But I want you to write this down. Are you ready? Write this down. Linking. I'm going to give you a definition, the Andy Elliott definition. Are you ready? Something. Something will link. Underline, link, circle it, apostrophes, star highlighter. Something will link you and the client together. It's your job to discover it. What takes two people and links them together? It's not that you guys both like OU football or Notre Dame. It could be. It could be, but there's going to be a closer link. Write this out. The greater the link. Okay. The greater the relationship. This is going to be a good video training. I can smell it. Here we go. All right. So how do we link customers together? Well, I'm going to start with some things that I believe that you must do to be great at. You ready? Write these down. Ready? We got to get the prospect to be interested in you. We got. That's our job. Our job is to get them interested in you. Not the product, not the company. We got to get them interested in you. Okay? Something's going to link you and them together. We got to get them interested in you. Secondly, we got to get them interested in what you have to say. Okay? I always say this like people need to hear, to want to hear you. They need to be interested in your language. And based on when I meet somebody, I should learn the way that they like. I always say like you've heard this before. People buy from people that remind them of their friends. Like, how do you make people interested in what you have to say, okay? Like, that's your job, okay? So number one, you gotta be a good speaker. But number two, you gotta find the little links. They're along the way. And then there's one big link. We're gonna find lots of little ones. One big one, okay? We gotta make them chase you. I always say people choose their mentor over money, okay? People need to want to look up to you. People want you to want to admire you, okay? You gotta make sure that you're a person of human excellence. You gotta be a person that people like when they see you, they're like, oh, my gosh. Like. Like, I like this person, okay? Like, you're likable, okay? So we got to make them chase you, okay? Also engage, okay? We got to engage with questions. How do we find out what links us together? Well, we engage with questions. We ask questions. And by the way, why do we ask questions? Because when people answer questions, they talk. And when people talk, people love talking about themselves. No matter how introverted someone is, if you ask them a question, they'll be extroverted. If they feel confident or if they. People love talking about themselves, okay? And people know themselves better than they know anything else in the world. So ask them a question about them. I promise you. People love to love to talk about themselves. So engage with questions. All right? Make them smile. This is a big one. You got to make. You got to be humorous. You got to be funny. You got to be a little bit quirky. Got to make people smile. Look, people are contagious back and forth. So when you're smiling, they'll smile, okay? So you can't get people to smile. There was. Listen, I'm going to say this real quick. There was a time that I walked by this lady. I've told this story a million times. And I'm walking by this lady. I was in the grocery store, and this lady looks at me and she's like, got the worst look on her face ever. She does not smile. And I was like, dude, what's that lady's problem? And my wife goes, I don't know. Did you smile at her? And I said, no, because she looked like she was angry. And she's like, well, if you would have smiled, I'm pretty sure she would have smiled. And I said, babe, that lady's got a problem. Watch. She walks by and she goes, hey. And the lady goes, hi. And I'm like, son of a buck. And I was like, that's because she likes you. She must hate me. I Probably remind her of her ex boyfriend or something. She's like, andy, walk by and smile at her. And here we are, we're playing this little game. I just had to prove her wrong. And my wife's always right. So I walked by and I said, hi. And she goes, hi. I was like, dang, man, why ain't I smiling first? So are you ready? Ready. Write this down. Initiate the smiling first. They'll follow, okay? So you got to make a smile. You got to make them. You got to make them a friend. You got to make a friend, okay? You got to make a friend. Like, dude, listen me. Your goal isn't to make a client. Write this down, okay? Relational. Relationship. Relationship capital. It's the most valuable currency in the world. There's human capital. Like what we're doing right now, we're building you as a human. There's relationship capital, which is a relationship. You have that value. That currency is priceless, okay? Relationship capital. Make a friend. Listen, write this down. Don't be transactional. I know you heard this before, okay? But transactional is like, you're going to pay this, you're getting this in return. We don't care about each other. It's like, it's a transaction. It's like going to an atm. There's not even a human being involved, okay? I always say this, man, you can never replace good human beings. You can't replace them. Nothing can. Not AI, not technology, not a robot, not a computer, nothing, okay? These are things that us as humans are really good at doing to each other. And you got to learn this stuff. And by the way, this is about being a good person. It's not like faking these things. I want you to become these things so you can become great. Are you ready? Speak with familiarity. This is a big one. Would you say, Andy, Speak with familiarity like you've known them your whole life. Hey, what's up, Don? How you doing, man? Awesome. Pleasure to have you here with us today. Means everything to me. Talk to him like you've known him your whole life. Write that down. Talk to everyone that you talk to for the rest of your life, whether you've known them or not, like you've known them your whole life. And watch how they'll be different to you. Watch how fast the familiarity rises. They need that. Okay? Tear the wall down. Happens in two seconds. Just speak to them like you've known him your whole life. From now on, everyone you talk to, just talk to them like you know him your whole life. You don't need to build common ground, fact find, qualify all that stuff and then find something that, you know. You find common ground with them and then pretend, you know, just talk to them right off the. Hey, Bob, how you doing, man? How you doing? Glad you're here. It means everything to me right off the gate. Okay, write this down. Make it a relaxed atmosphere. This is big, okay? Stress paralyzes people, okay? Listen, stressful situations make people want to leave, okay? Write this down. It's my job to create the environment. It's my job to create the atmosphere in which me and the client do business. Make it. Make it relaxing, okay? Do these things that I just told you, I promise you. And then I want you to write this last time. And by the way, establish rapport. Okay, so what does that mean? You know, you're going to ask some questions, already said engage, but you're going to establish some rapport. Don't have to be major rapport. Do all these things really well and you can do less rapport and be closer to them. Okay, last one, most importantly, find the link. Find the link. I'm going to tell you how I just gave you some ways. How. Find the link. What links? You and them together. The sooner you can find that link, the sooner that you and them, I call, like, just go into, like, fairytale and everything's good. The sale's done. It's in the bag. Remember this. Whoever. Whoever the client finds the link with is who they're going to buy from. Now, unless you've got the lowest price on the entire market and people would buy from you in spite of liking you because the price is so cheap. Don't do any of this. But I can only imagine what the commission structure looks like on that dog poop. Okay? You want to earn what you're worth, you got to be able to do this. Find the link. Okay, so here we go. You ready? This is where we go to training. Grab your pen, grab a piece of paper. Let's roll. You already should have been writing, but we're going to continue. The customer is judging you from the moment they meet you. Make sure you understand that. I think, like, people, like, don't even think about that. The customer is judging you from the moment before you even open your mouth. They're judging you as you're talking. They're judging you. This is why you got to be able to do all these things. You got to find that link. That's why I got to speak to them with familiarity. You got to tear that wall down quick. This is why you got to have engagement? The most successful person is the greatest at the skill of engagement. The one that can find the links, the one that wins, okay? It's not the best product. It's not the best price. It's you. Can you do this? And we're going to get to that. We're going to loop back around to this at the end. So the customer is judging you from the moment they meet. Listen to me. Remember, you can't control how friendly the other guy will be, but you can control a hundred percent of you. Can you control how friendly people are to you? Nope. But you damn sure can control how friendly you are to other people. Am I right? There's something in the world right now that's been climbing up the ladder to me that's making people more successful than ever before. It's climbing the ladder right now. There's three things to me that mean a lot to me, and this has become number third lately. It used to not, but now it's climbing up the ladder. I see it in the world. It's called kindness. Kindness is a superpower. It really is, man. No matter what's going on in someone's life, no matter what they've been through, no matter what they saw, no matter what experience, kindness is a superpower. And you can't determine how nice people are or how friendly they are, but you can have 100% control of how friendly you are. Okay? Remember that silent, silent killer, okay? Right there, Controlling how kind you are to people. All right, Ready? Your words set the tone and the atmosphere for what is to follow when you meet someone. The tone, the atmosphere, the way that you set it is for what's to follow. The way that I set it will be what's next. If you start out like a dud, I promise you they're thinking that the rest is going to suck and they're not going to want to stay with you. You got to earn the right. Everybody write this down. Earn the right. Earn the right for people to say yes and buy from you. You got to earn the right to ask someone to buy from you. You got to earn the right to ask someone who said, I'm only going to be here five minutes to stay for another five minutes and another five minutes and another hour and then three hours. That's. You got to earn the right. That's the game. And so you got to set the tone for that. Okay? Give them your best. Remember this. I want to say something. I've seen a lot of salespeople in the world that make people prove to them that they're going to buy before they give them their best. What does that mean? That means when I go meet you, it's like I want to know that you're here to do business and buy. And I'm not wasting my time before I'll give you my A game. Oh, that's junk, dude. If I don't care what you're doing, the fact that you're here, the fact that you're on the phone with me, the fact that we're getting to talk to each other, there's a million other places you could be. Am I an idiot? Of course you're here to do business. That's stupid. That would be a fool to think you wouldn't be here to do business with me. I don't need you to validate that. I know that. Go back to step one. Video one, thing. Video two, belief. Video three, find the link. The link is they could be anywhere in the damn world. But they're here with you. They're on the phone with you. Okay? Of course they're here to do business. Don't even assume anything else. Of course. How stupid would we be to think that they're here to do anything but buy from us? Matter of fact, they're probably more educated than you are about your product. They probably been on Google for three weeks. They finally just got the courage to make a call and they found somebody. They didn't give them their best. They didn't set the tone. You guys are understanding this, aren't you? I feel sorry for anybody that competes against you guys. If you can become this, I feel sorry for all of them. Are you ready? Write this down. Missed sales, you say? What does that mean? That means cells you don't close. Are you ready, Ms. Sales? Most. When I say most, I hate most people. Most people. We don't want to be most people. What's the enemy of great? Good. We want to be great. So when I say most, it's kind of cringy. Most. Remember, we're talking about Ms. Sales. Most salespeople will leave the no sells people with blaming its loss on everyone except the person who lost it. And that would be you. That right there. Only takes a winner to understand that. Blame everyone you want. Market economy, customer supply, demand, inventory, interest rates, Term. I don't care. Whatever. Just make it all up. Excuses only sound good to the people who are making them. It's still an excuse. But most people make excuses. You could have. You could have sold them. There's no doubt about it. You could have done something different, I promise you. Listen, I want you to understand this. I don't play chess. But life is a chess game. Sales is a chessboard. If you were to play chess, there's a winner and there's a loser. And when someone loses a game of chess, it's because they made a mistake somewhere before they made a mistake. They say how you got lucky. You made a mistake. That's why I beat you. Now, where, where are you making your mistake on your chess game? This is a big one. Not finding the link between you and your clients. You might need to watch this video 50 times. You're going to get it, trust me. And when you get it, light bulb is going to go off. It's over. Alright, so I'm going to tell you some ways that I kind of build rapport a little bit. Is that cool? So here we go. I begin conversations, whether in person or on the phone, asking people where they live or where they grew up. Why? Because it gets people to talk. Also because it's engaging. It also gets the conversation going easy and relaxed. Once I feel okay, there's step one, once I step two, once I feel that I have some kind of initial rapport, I will get a little more personal. Not too personal, but a little more personal with something like, so, Sean, what made you decide to choose the career you're in now? They're getting a little, hey, where are you guys from? Where do you live? Step one. Step two. Hey. Oh, that's amazing. Oh, that's awesome. You had an H Vac company. Oh, that's amazing. By the way, Sean, if you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to embark on the H Vac journey? What made you decide to get in that field? Come on, man, let him come our way. Make them chase you. Feel it. Can you see it? You guys are starting to figure this out. I'm gonna keep going. Stay away from religion and politics. It's personal rule. You guys do what you want. But I'm trying to tell you this. I don't talk religion, I don't talk politics. Remember, chess games are lost because of a mistake, okay? Stay away from them brings no value to my product helping them, okay? So just trust me, stay away. The worst thing you can do is start out a meeting or a conversation about you or your company's background. Biggest mistake I see salespeople, do they try to tell everybody how great their company is. They've been business 48 years I've been in sales in 13 years. I'm the number one sales guy here. I do all these things. Hey, how about this? Start with them. Start with them. That, that, that stuff can wait. We'll do that later. Tell me what value that brings to you. Do you guys being closer. Nothing. Does that give them the opportunity to talk? Are you asking questions? No. You're running your mouth. Okay, so especially if it's a big meeting, it's important. You know, like guys like I see these things get blown all the time. Okay? So I want you to be a favor. I want you to think. I'll give you some things to think about. We're going to write. Think, think about your last few cells. Okay. How did this sell begin? Just go back over the last like 5. How did the sales begin with you? What did you do? Were you like this? What holes can you find in your game right now? What do you need to fix? The person that can self correct is forever wealthy. What do you need to correct on right now? Okay. All right, number two. So how did the sale begin? Number two, was it friendly? Did people want to adopt you and take you home and make you a part of their family? Did they want to look up to you and choose you as their mentor and say hey Andy, I'm going to buy everything off you for the rest of your life? I have to. I've never been treated like this before. This is amazing. You know, was it friendly? Okay, are you ready? Thirdly, did you or I could put client feel comfortable when you began the sales portion of the meeting? Understand this guys, when you're doing a sale, like you're not starting out selling like you're starting out engaging with them. You're starting out finding a link between you and them. Common sense is they've called on the phone, we're requesting information for them to learn about our product or they're requesting information to learn about our product. However we got in touch with each other, I promise you if there's no engagement, if there's no linking, then you're just giving out information on a commodity and they're going to come down to the end saying what's the best difficulty I can get? But if they love you, if they feel engaged, if they feel linked to you, if they feel close to you, I promise you at the end they'll end up paying you more for it and they don't care and they're happy about it. You know what a ripoff is? Somebody asked me the other day, they said what's your definition of A ripoff. Well, I could have a product and I could give someone a $5,000 discount. And honestly, if I didn't treat. If I didn't make them happy and I didn't treat them like this and I didn't make them feel like the value is through the roof, even though they got a $5,000 discount, that's a ripoff. So wait a minute. So they got a low price, but they feel ripped off? Yep. Because I didn't connect. I didn't have engagement with them. I didn't link close with them like this. I could charge them 5,000 more than it was worth and I could do all this right, and they would feel like they got the best deal in the world. They'd go tell everybody about me. It has nothing to do with money. It has everything with you and your ability to learn this stuff. Okay, Screw product knowledge. This is all people knowledge. Okay, Are you ready? The measure, underlying measure, the measure of mastering cells. This is how I measure. It is not in just making cells. It is in creating relationships and friendships that end in multiple cells and referrals. Let me repeat that again. The measure, my measuring stick of who is great and who has mastered sales is very simple. It is not just of the making of the cells. How many cells did you make? It is in creating relationships and friendships that end, ultimately, they end in multiple cells, more than one cell from that client. And referrals. Okay, write this down. Mastery, becoming a pro. Being the best, top 1%, whatever you want to call it, this is good. Every time you make a call or an important or to go to make or go to an appointment. It depends on what you do. Maybe an insurance agent, you go to an appointment. Maybe in the automotive business and you go to set an appointment and you're meeting somebody on the lot for the first time. You may have a call set up with somebody and you're going to make a call with them. Understand this. Every time you go to make a call or you go to an appointment or you're on, you're making a sale, okay? You have to master personal engagement and rapport. And your number one goal is to find that common ground that links you together and laugh every freaking time. You got to get them to laugh. You got to get them to have fun. You must be the killer of stress. Your job is to control the environment that the client is in when they are with you. That is your job. That's why you get paid. That's the greatest thing you can ever do. And how awesome is it? To deal with someone who is a professional. I love spending a lot of money with somebody that didn't even make me feel like I spent any money. I hate being with an amateur. And I came in to buy something and hell, before I go to buy it, I'm questioning whether I should even get it. They've done such a poor job. Your job is to take all the pressure off your client. You got to master this. So with that being said, guys, I love you. I appreciate you. I'm grateful for all of you. What is going to link you in every single client that you meet for the rest of your life? What will be the difference between you and your competition? How will you annihilate the market? Easy find what links you guys together. Watch this video a thousand times until you master it and it'll become dangerous and deadly. Love you guys. See you in the next video.