Whether in business or personal life, trust is the biggest barrier in establishing new relationships.
If someone does not have a relationship with you or doesn’t know what to expect, it can be risky, and fear can keep people from engaging further with you.
Building trust in personal or business relationships comes down to one thing: making commitments and keeping them.
When we give our hard-earned resources or our time and attention to someone, we are expecting something in return. Trust erodes when the outcomes we expect are not met.
Often we place our trust in brands.
Apple
I have used Apple computers and products all my whole life. For a lot of years, this was against the norm. From my perspective, in the DNA of every Apple product was that they were beautifully designed and they just worked.
Over time that trust has been dwindling. It first happened with the iTunes software that was just a disaster, especially for someone whose life centered around their music collection. Now their current laptop keyboards are so bad that they don’t work.
What is tragic is that it takes such a long time to build trust and it can be lost so quickly.
This is why it is so important to maintain credibility and integrity. You can only do it by making commitments you can keep and keeping commitments that you make.
What promise are you making?
In designing your brand, company, product offering or marketing strategy, you need to clarify what you value and will stand for. From this standpoint, we can make promises that we can deliver on.
When people know what they can expect from us, as long as it is something that interests them, they are more willing to take the risk of moving to the next step with what we are offering.
With clarity on what you promise, comes the ability to commit fully to delivering on that promise.
Which reminds me of my favorite quote about commitment:
The difference between involvement and commitment is the difference between ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.
Martina Navratilova
The promise of Seacliffs Sales Coaching
As your coach, rest assured that I am going to put my heart and my soul into making sure you get the most out of our time together. I will give you the support you need to work to achieve what matters most to you.
What commitments are you making?
When you are working on clarifying your promise, don’t take it lightly. After all, we know what it is like to be burned.
We live in a day and age where commitments are being broken all the time, and people don’t want to take a stand for anything.
It is important to remember that Christ has only ever been fully committed, faithful, loyal and steadfast with us.
And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.
Mark 1:17
When we see that he is fully committed to us, we can begin to trust in Him and engage in the process of Him making us into his people
When he says I will make you, we need to remember that it is His work on our behalf, over time, that allows us to become all that we are created to be.