Let’s assume that the product or the service that you are selling is of a high quality and that it is desired in the marketplace. Let’s also assume that there are many other people in the marketplace selling similar products or services.

Who is going to get the sale? Will it be the person with the most product knowledge? Will it be the person with the best communication skills? Will it be the person with the magnetic personality? Will it be the person who is most trustworthy in the eyes of the purchaser but may be lacking in complete product knowledge? Will it be the person who may only be an average communicator, is timid and lacking in confidence, but oozes integrity? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? From childhood we are taught to always tell the truth. When it comes to selling . . . not so much. There are many salespersons who walk the straight and narrow and many still who find it necessary to be dishonest.

In the past few decades we have experienced in the United States a selling process that has gone from simple to slick, from face-to-face to in-your-face, from trustworthy to thievery. Look at the credit system of selling and buying. In the 1950s and 1960s a person could enter his neighborhood grocery store to purchase a few items and ask to have the cost of the goods purchased placed on his tab, which would be paid off on payday. The proprietor of the store would make the judgment of whether to extend credit or not based on his interpretation of the silent communicators he was receiving from the customer and whether or not he recognized the family. It was an honor system. Today the honor system is rarely used. Instead, credit is extended by a behemoth corporation located in a far away state or possibly in a foreign country. Substantial fees can be charged for the use of the credit privilege, and the rules of usage are often so confusing as to land the violator of the rules in embarrassing situations at the point of purchase, or later when the bill comes due. Credit is a valuable privilege but one that is increasingly more difficult to access. If access to credit is granted, reading the fine print on packaging and on contract documents is a must today before signing anything. The trust factor is gone, the victim of too many scams.

So, who is going to get the sale these days? I believe it will go to the salesperson deemed by the customer to be honest. This series on Outfluence in a Sales Environment will focus on building trust. We will suggest what a salesperson must do to earn the trust of today’s suspecting customers and how to build that trust through silent communication and showing your clients/customers they are more than just a sale, that you truly care about what is best for them and their company, and why the products or services you are selling them will be of benefit to their businesses.