Credibility and Trust

Learning to acknowledge another person's feelings or concerns is a very important relationship skill. Don't leave home with out it.

Another great one. Thanks Frankie.

You can add these. I didn't see them posted yet.

*Use facts instead of generalizations - 93.6% instead of "most people".
*Offer satisfaction guarantees.
*Use the power of referrals, recommendations, and letters of introduction.
*Establish a Reputation locally and within your industry.
*Credentials - if you have any don't be bashful about it.
*Dress for success.
*Communicate on a one-to-one level.
*Demonstrate your expertise.

Nice post Vince!

Thanks. Great thread.

Treat the customer like you would want to be treated.

Another great one. Thanks Donnie.

Invest in learning body language. Not only will it help you profile and understand a customer/prospect and better identify their needs, likes and dislikes, but you can reverse engineer the process.

That is to say, if you understand the basics of body language you can apply them to yourself and further engender a desired response from the people you interact with. Whether they realize it or not your customer/prospects will be influenced by your body language and will to some extent base (consciously and unconsciously) much of their decisions about your honest, integrity and trust worthiness on this. Given that there is no history between you this is one way to influence first impressions.

Obviously this can't be applied over the phone, however voice training or delivery can have an impact upon how people react and interact with you. Tonal qualities, inflection, delivery speed, warmth and even cadence can have a subtle effect. If you like the look or sound of someone you'll be more likely to want to interact with them. This is a form of trust.

This thread just gets better and better. Thank you klorpet for that wonderful and informative post.

Another great Dale Carnegie quote that relates is, "Talk in terms of the other person's interest".