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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to It's a Good Life with Brian Buffini, founder of America's largest business coaching company. Here's a short classic cut from one of our all time favorite episodes.
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You know, trust is the most critical factor to the success of any and all relationships, both in business and in life. Today we're going to explore the most important aspect of building trust with a client, which is follow up. And in today's business environment, if you can follow up consistently, you'll be a shining star in the marketplace. So here's what we're going to talk about. Three major points. First, we're going to talk about emptying the trust account. Second, it's where sales are made. And third, it's how advocates are created. So let's talk about emptying the trust account. You know, trust doesn't just magically happen overnight. It has to be built over time. You have to make deposits in the trust account with customers and you enjoy the compounding effects of the business. Break trust and that account quickly depletes. A study found that if you have a good experience, 24% of customers will seek out a vendor for two years or more. If they had a bad experience, 39% will avoid that business for two years or more. When you make a promise and don't keep it, you immediately break trust and deplete the trust account. The next piece to that is it creates doubt in the customer's mind. In life, silence is golden. In business, silence is deadly. You know, customers feel vulnerable and they're taking a leap of faith when they come to do business with you. So we've got to fill that vulnerability in with communication, attention and care. It takes a lot to build confidence, but it doesn't take a lot to break the confidence. If you want to get business with people, if you want to grow business, if you want to enjoy what you do, put your name to it. If you want to get referrals, you got to be a promise keeper. The next thing is, when you don't keep your promises, it erodes trust. And the question I have for you, is your business a trust gainer or a trust drainer? Poor communication or lack of communication erodes trust. Trust is built in drops, but lost in buckets. When trust is lost, it can be very difficult to rebuild it. So we have to understand that we have a promise to make and a promise to keep. And so we want to build trust with people. So we talked about promises made, promises not kept. We talked about how it creates doubt in the customer's mind and, erodes, trust. So let's talk about the more positive side of this second major point is follow up is where sales are made. It's where sales are made. A Deloitte study found trusted companies outperform by up to 400%. Customers who trust a brand are 88% more likely to buy again from that business. More trust equals more business, which equals more referrals. Now I'm going to share a stat that we use in our coaching department to help businesses of all kinds. Not just real estate business, but we serve over 47 different types of industries. We have contractors and accountants and CPAs and insurance people and stockbrokers and computer marketing people and website developers, all kinds of businesses that we support. The key ingredient to helping all those businesses get more referrals is always about building trust and always about follow up. You know, our whole marketing system, the referral maker Pro kit, the call behind all that, is designed to generate connections and contact with people. And so that's why it's a systematic approach to follow up with people. Our dialogues that we've taught and trained to people for decades. Can I be of any help? It demonstrates your willingness to assist. I want you to know how much I value our relationship. It communicates what's really important here, the relationship, not just the transaction. And oh by the way, I'm never too busy for any year. Referrals are oh by the way dialogue. Oh by the way, never too busy for any of your referrals is also a way to contact people and connect with people and ask for referrals. David Horsager said, trust is not a soft skill. A lack of trust is your biggest expense. We had David on the podcast. The next thing it does, it creates customer confidence, character and competence. Build trust and you can get people to like you, like Dale Carnegie talks about, but you have to communicate your competence too. So it's the character is they like me, they trust me personally. I'm not going to tell them a lie. But then they have to trust your competence. Now let me just say this. When it gets right down to it, people will trust competence over the likability character factor. When push comes to shove, I can deal with a doctor with a bad bedside manner if I think he or she is too technically very good. Now where the magic happens is if I like you personally, I trust you as a person and you're really good. So the science behind our whole marketing system, what I mentioned, the referral maker Pro system, if you go on our website, is that every month we provide the Mailings, the emailings, the social media contacts, all of the marketing pieces, the Popeye gifts and tags and all that stuff. It's all based on the science to communicate character and illustrate competence. And so maybe it's, hey, I want to help you raise your credit score or protect your family from identity theft, right? So raising your credit score, that's very competence focused. Protect your family from identity theft, that's more warm and fuzzy character building, if you will. I'm going to give you market updates on the state of the market. If you're in real estate, what's going on in that real estate business. If you're in the mortgage business, what's going on with rates. If you're in the stock business, what's happening with the stock market? And then also maybe I might send you information on how to set goals or manage your time or how to create lasting memories on family vacations. And the goal is that the marketing supports your mechanisms to building trust. Okay? Doing a great job for people. Of course, it's the foundation for building trust of people. If you do a good job now, you got a platform and that's why, like, you've got to have that standard that, hey, I'm going to do a good job for people. And then ultimately I want to do a great job for people. And then the supreme piece is I want to wow my customers. Zig Ziglar used to say, if people like you, they'll listen to you, but if they trust you, they'll do business with you. So we talked about follow up and demonstrate you want people's business and then create that customer confidence, right? Most people are struggling in their business because they don't follow up, because they either follow up once, maybe twice. You know, that's about 60% of all salespeople. And yet people don't buy till the 5th or the 12th. I want to talk to you about now about how advocates are created. I tell people all the time, you know, opportunities walking out the door every single day. If something goes wrong, just make it right and then you make it better. You have to have a number of positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. So you just got to make it right. Ken Blanchard said, just having satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans. And if you've never read that book, I highly recommend it to you. Blanchard's Raving Fans, a fantastic book. So the next thing you want to do is just become the trusted advisor and so what I did in my real estate business was I became the voice of value. I became the person where if someone had a leaky roof, they called me for the roofer or the painter or the plumber, whatever they needed, I was the person who referred them. That's why I actually published a referral directory every year. So you want to be that trusted advisor, you know, you got to communicate that you want to be their trust advisor. You know, be present, be accessible, make sure the clients, they know how to reach you and that you're available to help them with anything they need. And then lastly, oh, by the way, remind them to refer you. You know, remind people, even friends and family, you're there for them. You know, people are not lying awake at night wondering if you're making your house payment. They presume you're doing good. In fact, they presume you're very busy, especially families and friends. We're always telling them how busy we are. So oftentimes, oh, I don't want to refer somebody else because I don't want to be a bother. And so that's why the phrase, oh, by the way, I'm never too busy for your referrals came about. Make deposits in your customers, emotional bank accounts. You know, small gestures make a huge difference. Meet those emotional needs, you make an advocate for life. Okay, seek to be of service. Always put yourself out there, always trying to help. You know, my mentor Jim Rohn used to say, one customer, well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising. No question about it. So we want to make sure that we make the promise, we keep the promise, we become the trusted advisor and then remind people to refer us. So today we've covered how to empty the trust account. Ultimately, it's follow up is where sales are made from. And that follow up is how advocates are created. Dale Carnegie once said, you can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years. But by trying to get them interested in you, get really interested in your customers. Find out what really makes them tick consistently follow up with them and that you can deliver that care. And most of all, remember that the relationship doesn't end when they sign on the dotted line. It's only the beginning. So we need to follow up, follow through, and we'll end up having a business we're really proud of.
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Well, we hope you enjoyed this. Quick cut. Head to the show notes to listen to the full episode. If you'd like to elevate your business to achieve your goals, talk to one of our experts on a free business consultation. Visit it's a good life.com BC to schedule yours today.