ATMOSPHERE OF TRUST AND THE SIGNALS THAT CREATE IT
FIRST, HOW WE THINK ABOUT 'SALES RESULTS'
In real customer interactions, business results and personal results rise and fall together. Below are results that our clients have cared about through the years.
BUSINESS
RESULTS
Some of the business results clients have consistently pursued over the years
Some common
business results
PERSONAL
RESULTS
Some personal aspirations people have shared with us over the years
Some common
personal results
All of those results—business and personal—rise and fall with the atmosphere of trust created throughout the interaction.
And everyone arrives at that same conclusion
But here's the thing.
An atmosphere of trust, like gravity, is always there.
And it's being shaped whether we know it or not, like it or not.
But, unlike gravity, we’re helping to shape it.
Whether we mean to or not.
What’s doing the shaping?
It’s shaped by the signals we send.
But the signals we send are being distorted and amplified.
And customers don’t even know they’re doing it.
What "Signal distortion" looks like in a customer interaction
This distortion happens because the buyer/seller interaction is categorically different from all other human interactions.
What makes the buyer/seller
interaction so different?
We all know that it’s harder to create trust in customer interactions than it is anywhere else.
But what we miss is why—and the why is what matters.
It’s not because customers are more cynical, or because trust is just harder to earn these days. There’s something else at work. Trust, yes—but not formed the way we think it is.
We are naturally wired to send signals one way
In a buyer/seller interaction, we seek to demonstrate credibility and expertise, show interest and curiosity, and build rapport. We want to be responsive and respectful and communicate in a straightforward and professional way.
But customers are naturally wired to process them in another
In a buyer/seller interaction, customers are not consciously evaluating your behavior and competence, then deciding if they should trust you. They’re subconsciously processing your signals, then deciding if they feel safe.
Those two natural
patterns collide
How we send signals—and customers process
them—collide throughout every interaction.
That collision forms the atmosphere of trust.
atmosphere
of trust
The customer’s instinctive feeling of safety that rises and falls second-by-second throughout
every buyer/seller interaction
The good news is: the collision follows a very predictable pattern.
But it’s a pattern that surprises almost everyone, because:
1. Signals we think will land positively in the collision—often blow it up.
2. Signals we think would blow it up—often land.
3. The way we are naturally wired to send signals—our inherited Traditional Sales Mindset—naturally produces signals that diminish the Atmosphere of Trust.
