Trust-Based Selling: Using Customer Focus and Collaboration to Build Long-Term Relationships (BUSINESS BOOKS) - Hardcover

Sales based on trust are uniquely powerful. Learn from Charles Green, co-author of the bestseller The Trusted Advisor how to deserve and, therefore, earn a buyer’s trust.

Buyers prefer to buy from people they trust. However, salespeople are often mistrusted. Trust-Based Selling shows how trust between buyer and seller is created and explains how both sides benefit from it. Heavy with practical examples and suggestions, the book reveals why trust goes hand-in-hand with profit; how trust differentiates you from other sellers; and how to create trust in negotiations, closings, and when answering the six toughest sales questions. Trust-Based Selling is a must for anyone in sales, is especially invaluable for sellers of complex, intangible services.

Rarely are the words "sales" and "trust" used in the same sentence. Why? Buyers are often skeptical, fearing that sellers have only their own interests at heart, Most sellers honestly want to do right by their customers--yet still want and need to get the sale. Is it ever possible for buyer and seller to trust each other?

The answer, says bestselling business author Charles Green, is yes. In his previous bestseller The Trusted Advisor, Green and his co-authors explain how to increase dramatically the levels of trust in client relationships. In his new book Trust-Based Selling, Green zeros in on the single most criitical application of trust to customers--selling--when buyers decide whether or not to become a customer. Green shows how the sales process is a powerful opportunity to create trust. No matter what your business--law, advertising, software, banking, telecom--behaving in a trustworthy manner during the sales process creates customer trust, while at the same time enhancing the odds of getting the sale.

You'll begin by examining customer buying habits, the often-overlooked impact of trust-building on the selling process, and the tremendous profit impact of selling from trust. Green outlines the principles of Trust-based Selling®, showing how to create trust from first introductions to proposals to negotiations to closings--even while responding to the Six Toughest Sales Questions. He shows how to apply the Four Trust Principles and the Trust Creation Process to any traditional sales process model for dramatic results:

• You and your sales force will become more mindful of customers' issues and situations, as well as their concerns, desires, and fears
• Customers who trust you will become more open to your ideas, explore more options with you, and streamline decision-making
• You'll achieve enhanced creativity, more buy-in, greater honesty, and fewer misunderstandings by fostering collaboration with customers
• You will be able to focus on the relationship, not the transaction--which ultimately builds trust and then yields more transactions

Complete with real-life examples from a variety of businesses, Trust-Based Selling is the authoritative guide selling in a world that is interconnected and dependent on trust relationships.

and earn their business for life!

What buyers really want--even when they don't say so--is a seller they can trust. In this follow-up to his bestseller The Trusted Advisor, Charles Green points the way to a culture that values the relationship over the transaction, builds trust in the sales process, and focuses on doing the right thing for the customer. Trust-Based Selling shows how applying trust principles to customer selection, negotiations, proposing, presenting, pricing and closing leads not only to better business results for customers, but also to greater customer trust and far greater sales effectiveness and profitability. Green explains how to:

• Adopt the four fundamental principles of Trust-based Selling
• Move from being seller-focused to client-focused--and stay that way
• Collaborate rather than compete with your customer
• Convert hostile or suspicious customer questions into opportunities to increase trust
• Care about customers for their sakes--thereby increasing your sales and customer retention rates
• Develop the perspective that "the relationship is the customer"

"If you want to earn the trust of your customers, I suggest you read this book."--Jeffrey Gitomer, bestselling author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling

"At last, a sales book based on how sophisticated, intelligent people actually buy. An important contribution that challenges the effectiveness of much of current sales practice, and shows how to do it better."--David Maister, author of First Among Equals and Managing the Professional Services Firm

"Green has written a rarity--a practical book which talks about the critical role of trust in selling, and how to be honest and successful at the same time."--Ken Roller, Director, Strategic Relations, Intel Corporation