Customer Reviews

Trust-Based Selling: Using Customer Focus and Collaboration to Build Long-Term Relationships

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Imagine, a sales book that suggests asking elevator questions versus making an elevator speech. Ponder a book that highlights principles versus process. Consider a book that recommends selling by doing not telling. This does even scratch the surface of what Charles Green discusses in this soon-to-be classic, Trust-Based Selling.

As a performance consulting firm we are tenacious to read anything that will help us help our clients. There have been numerous books we have read and recommended. None approach the tenants in Trust-Based Selling. Mr. Green has captured what is means to have a true client focus. His approach is practical and honest. It addresses principles you live not techniques you turn on and off because you went through a sales training class.

If collaboration, selflessness and transparency with clients are values you live by or wish to do so, Trust-Based Selling will help take those standards to new levels.

Charles Green has nailed the fundamental issue in sales today. As a 25 year veteran of the insurance industry, I can speak first hand to the challenge of overcoming the negative salesperson stereotype. The secret is to become "a radical truth teller" and to put the interests of buyers first. I especially liked the author's themes of collaboration and transparency. Sellers of intangible, experiential services will benefit greatly from Mr. Green's chapter on "Sell by Doing, Not by Telling."

As a salesman for many years I agree with everything that Mr. Green says. In fact I remember a particular sales call where I took my vice president to visit the vice president of a company with whom we were doing business. The customer had issued a requirement for a computer printer. I had brought one of our printers with us and given it to one of his teckies on the way to the meeting.

The customer asked, 'is this printer any good?'

'No, its a piece of s**t. But it's the cheapest piece of s**t that meats your specs.'

'It's really that bad?'

'Well,' I said, 'it prints OK after you get paper in it, but putting paper in it is difficult.'

The customer smiled a little. "Yeah, I used to have one, I could never get the paper in it.' Then he turned to my VP and said, 'That's why I like to do business with him, he doesn't lie to me.'

They changed their specs and down through the years I sold them an awful lot of printers.

I think that this story illustrates what Mr. Green is saying. Make a friend, a trusted friend out of a customer or prospect and you can expect to get returns far beyond what you might expect, but only if you are a trusted friend as well.

For years, I have believed that there was "something missing" in the sales programs to which I had been exposed. Despite all the words to the contrary, the many programs seemed manipulative with the focus on "getting the order." The many different incentive programs I've seen employed simply drove that point home. It was always in my sales team's best interest to "take the order off the buyer's desk." And even the more advanced relationship selling programs had that end goal as the reason for building the relationship. It was always about the seller's point of view even as they claimed to be customer oriented.

Green finally has given us the language to use that makes it clear how the various rungs on the sales competency ladder lead you to success: product-based to needs-based to relationship-based and finally to trust-based state of mind. The first three rungs on the sales ladder are seller oriented. The last rung is customer oriented. For other than commodity products and services, the old adage that "nothing happens without a sale" must be updated to add "and no significant sale will happen without trust."

Each chapter in this must read book begins with a "Chapter at a Glance" box that sets the reader up for what to expect and then Green fulfills that promise. The chapters are broken down into reasonable chunks of information that are easy to find when referring back to previous material. The writing is clear and the message compelling. There are many very useful diagrams, tables, and lists.

Green states that there are four principles that drive trust-based selling: (1) A focus on the customer for the customer's sake, not just the seller's sake. (2) A style of selling that is consistently collaborative. (3) A perspective centered on the medium to long term. (4) A habit of being transparent in all dealings with the customer. Each of these principles is described in full, a list of what supports or encourages keeping those principles is given and then a discussion of what destroys the principles is also provided. The insight for the reader (especially those familiar with the usual sales training courses) is how much we are told we must do in sales actually destroys trust with our clients.

Green provides us with a memory prodder in the form of an equation: T = (C+R+I)/(S) where T is trust, C is credibility, R is reliability, I is intimacy and S is self-orientation. Credibility is about the words we speak and the domain knowledge we bring to bear. Reliability has to do with our actions and delivering what we promise to the customer/client. Intimacy refers to the safety or security that we feel when entrusting someone with information or feelings. Self-orientation is the perception of whether or not the person in question is only interested in furthering his or her own goals or is more focused on helping others achieve their goals. Each of these parameters are explored in depth.

Green then moves on to describe the "Trust Creation Process": Engage-Listen-Frame-Envision-Action. Engage is a focus on understanding what the customer values and being prepared to discuss them. Listen at a higher level to themes and issues that are important and real to the customer. Frame the root issue, problem statement or opportunity statement in terms that both you and the customer agree to. Envision, with your customer, an alternate end-state (how things will look when resolved). And Action is a mutually agreed upon set of executable steps for both you and your customer to move toward the vision. Again, Green goes into detailed explanation of each of these process steps making it clear how important it is to maintain the customer focus throughout the trust creation process.

There are many lists throughout the book and I found myself going back to review them as Green built on the concepts he presented. I was very pleased to find that the Appendix has a complete compilation of the lists in the order they were introduced. This will be an excellent reference as the reader implements and integrates the principles in this book in all his or her relationships - not just sales!

This book is a must read for not only the sales professional but for any executive who deals with people and has to sell ideas, budgets or plans - so that's just about everyone! For the sales executives and managers, you will need to run interference in your own organization so that your sales team can focus on more mid-term and long-term relationships. The day of stretching the rules and compensation geared toward short-term quarterly goals must go the way of the dinosaurs. Your organization would do well to: adopt the four fundamental principles of Trust-Based Selling; move from being seller-focused to being client-focused; collaborate rather than compete with your customers; care about customers for their sakes - thereby increasing your sales and customer retention rates; and develop the perspective that "the relationship is the customer." Get it, read it and put it into practice.

The author provides a set of basic, trust-building principles that are accompanied by practical recommendations about how to apply them, along with illustrative anecdotes. He effectively challenges the financial extraction, "share-of-wallet" approach of too many sellers and instead offers the customer's perspective on building trust and sales at the same time. The book is both easy to read and easy to use as a reference guide to changing behavior.

Green does a credible job of presenting concepts that will help build trust with prospective customers, and move the sale forward.

What I liked best about Green's book is:

+ can help you differentiate from other sales professionals by creating a customer-first vs self-centered sales approach

+ engaging, easy to read and insightful .. an intelligent book

+ helps sales professionals learn how to 'elevate' their approach to one that's more credible and honest, which builds trust, which builds sales.

Good work on it - well written.


Ken Calhoun

If you are working with an organisation that wants to 'become more customer focused' - and let's face it, who doesn't these days - you'll want to read this book. So many organisations, as they begin exploring what 'customer centricity' is all about, will soon realise that effective, long term relationships (and ultimately business success) are built on trust. But I suspect many companies set out to build trust only as long as it helps sell more stuff!
Charles Green's book helps clarify the concept of trust and the importance of becoming truely customer focused as well as the need to understand just how 'self-orientated' most organisations are. This one simple concept, self-orientation, and it's role in limiting trust, is clearly explained and demonstrated. Perhaps it is the prime reason your company is struggling to realise the full potential of customer intimacy!
Good read, well worth the time - but get senior leaders to read it as well.

This book takes a solid look at the importance of relationships to enhance your appreciation for others and foster your creativity. We often believe that we understand the principles behind trust and relationships. However, the difficulty is in truly living these principles day-in and day-out. Further, we are challenged in helping our colleagues develop their trust levels with others. This book offers sound practical advice to overcome these difficulties and challenges so that we ultimately grow ourselves relative to long-term sustained relationships.

Charles H. Green co-authored "The Trusted Advisor", one of the overall best consulting books ever written. In this book, "Trust-Based Selling", Green dives deeper into topic of selling professional services.

Green's advice is that sales of professional services (legal, accounting, consulting, etc) is based entirely on trust. The best way to earn the trust of prospects is genuinely to deserve it. You must make yourself a trustworthy person--a person truly deserving of trust. This formula means putting clients' needs ahead of your own. Green believes that such relationships will generate more income in the long run--but only if you are genuinely sincere. Green's maxims include:

1. Think always of what is best for the customer--do not hesitate to recommend your competition if you believe they can serve the customer better.
2. Selling collaboratively--write proposals together with the client, for example.
3. Focus on the medium to long term client relationship--Pay no mind to the short-term.
4. Be transparent--Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Throw away your company brochures--instead, pass along interesting whitepapers you have read that will resonate with your prospect. Don't give an "elevator speech"--instead, ask deep, thought-provoking "elevator questions". Sell by doing, not telling. For those selling professional services, this is strong book, and I strongly recommend it.

OK, this is one of my favorite books, and I have a bookcase full. Are you a CPA? Attorney? Marriage Counselor? Teacher? In any profession where you know more than your clients and your clients rely on you to put their interest above all else (including your own interest), then the trust the client has in you is EVERYTHING. This book explains how to earn that trust, demonstrate that trust, and profit from that trust. Better for your clients. Better for you. And yeah, there is a bit of a moral twist her, because you can't establish trust unless you truly deserve it. Read it over and over.