What makes a really great business relationship? - Trust.

Good presentation skills alone do not win business. They are, though, a vital part of the mix. Do you want to know what separates the really great salespeople from the average? They differentiate themselves with trust.

The key yes or no decision, in anything, is often made on a personal level and can be attributed to how memorable and credible the person who made the presentation was and how much do I trust what they are promising? Is this person someone I would love to do business with no matter what the product or service they offer is and do I trust them?

It is self-evident that a sales presentation should lead to a sale, but, paradoxically, the process is less about selling than it is about buying. No one likes to be sold to, but people do like to buy and people love to buy from someone they trust. It is therefore vital that both presenter and presentation create a clear reason for the client to buy from you as opposed to someone else. How do you go about getting that to happen on a consistent basis? You become that rare commodity a trusted advisor.

Put at its simplest, people don’t buy pitches or even good performances. People buy differentiation. They want you and your product or service to be credible and trustworthy and then all other details tend to fall by the wayside. Most decisions are not commodities they are often made on a very subconscious level and consistently reaching people on that level is all about exceeding expectations and being dependable. People buy something every moment of every day and almost without exception they end up buying ideas, concepts, products or services presented in a thoroughly persuasive and engaging sales presentation by someone they have come to believe they can trust. So how do you get really good at selling ideas, concepts, products or services? How do you differentiate your business? Trust is the answer.

Trust is the glue that keeps customers coming back. The customer's faith in your word and belief in your promises is what saves you in those difficult times when everything seems to be going wrong. If you have made promises in the past and things have turned out well, the customer will trust you when things go from good to bad to worse. Say what you mean and do what you say. Customer trust grows slowly and develops over a period of time and is a succession of positive experiences. Trust can be dashed by a single incident of bad faith and can be cemented by a singular memorable act. Fairness is one of the customer's most critical trust-creating hot buttons. Treat me unfairly — from my point of view — and lose me forever as a client. What is fairness from the customer's point of view? That can and often does vary from customer to customer. But in general customers feel treated fairly when:

• They got the outcome they expected — what they asked for.
• The process of getting what they wanted was painless.
• You kept the promises you made.
• You treated them ethically.
• You acknowledged their unique needs and wishes.