To hear someone say “my word is my bond” these days may raise an eyebrow, but trust in business can be such a persuasive influence.
Do you trust others? Are you trusted?
Recently, I was thinking about who I trust in business and life – and how this trust developed. Who are the people you can do a handshake with and know that it will be honoured and whose word is their word?
So much good business can be done with people you trust and yet how do we build trust? Good relationships are built on trust.
As I thought through who I trust, I realised that:
- Trust develops through doing what you say you will do.
- Trust is built on small steps.
It’s when:
- “I will call you” means I will call you.
- “I will be there at 10am” means I will be there at 10am and if I am running late for any unforeseen reason I will call and let you know!
- We will pay by this date means exactly that.
In other words, the key to establishing trust is to be trustworthy. And almost invariably someone who starts a sentence with “Trust me…” is definitely not to be trusted!
So how do we establish trust?
The easiest way is by establishing action and deadline commitments and then sticking to them. “I will do this by X.” And then doing it!
How simple is that, and yet how time saving and productive trust can be in business.
A trusted relationship lasts a lifetime and leads to such productivity and referrals – I would never refer anyone to someone I don’t trust and the people I do trust get so much free business through me. No doubt you are the same!
Multiply that and think about the impact of being a trusted person or trusted business!
Trust is worth its weight in gold and generally leads to gold!
A final thought on trust…
To be trusted you need to be trustworthy!
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