How to Build Trust when Sales Prospecting (and WIN more clients!)

Have you been wondering how to build trust when you are looking for new clients? Even if you have been successfully winning more clients, have you also been searching for new tactics and strategies to win even more clients?

If so, you have definitely come to the right place. At Dubb, we are obsessed with helping our community accomplish its sales goals. While the specifics may depend on the company and the individual situation, there are certain overarching principles that we can rely upon to do our best prospecting work. Yes, it can be difficult to consistently apply these principles, but if we’re able to do so, we’ll find that our sales work is much more 

In this blog post, we are going to take a deep dive into the trust building process and what you can do to win more clients. Whether you work for a small startup or are a sales leader in a much larger corporation, you can use these tips to help you build trust, create closer connections with your sales prospects, and make it much easier to convert prospects into satisfied customers.

So are you ready? Let’s take a deep dive into how we can build trust throughout the sales prospecting process.

The Importance of Trust

Building relationships can be difficult. Especially if you are meeting someone for the first time, it’s all too natural to take a cautious approach toward the other person. After all, when we were little, we were taught not to trust strangers. Sure, strangers can provide value to us, but they can also be threatening. They can sell a subpar product, scam us out of our money, or even worse. On the other hand, strangers can provide career-defining opportunities. Whether the stranger helps us hit our sales quota or even helps us find a new job, that stranger can change the course of our lives. 

So where do we draw the line? Ultimately, it comes down to trust. Trust is what unlocks those opportunities provided by strangers. Simply put, every type of relationship is built on trust. This is true whether we are talking about friendships or business relationships. While trust can be a difficult thing to earn, it is vital to creating healthy, long-term relationships with virtually any type of person. 

Friendship Emerges From Sales

With this basic understanding of trust in mind, let’s move on to talk about friendship. I often like to say that getting a sale is not about “closing” someone. It isn’t about pulling out all of the stops (especially if they are unethical) to land a sale—regardless of whether your product or service actually helps that prospect improve their lives. Rather than that, getting a sale is about opening a friendship. 

In the traditional sales model, the salesperson is responsible for hunting. That salesperson picks up the phone, starts cold calling a bunch of prospects on a long list, and sees if some of those prospects are interested in the company’s product or service. From there, they apply a certain list of sales tactics and strategies to convince that prospect to become a paying customer. Once that deal is closed, the account then gets passed off to an account manager. Even if there isn’t a specifically defined account manager, the account still gets handed to another individual who manages that relationship. The salesperson then moves on and continues targeting other prospects who could become paying clients. Even if the salesperson had a good relationship with a specific prospect, that salesperson is incentivized to move on and spend all of their time on new prospects.

Considering this reality, there is a great opportunity for salespeople to develop long-term relationships with their converted prospects. By doing this, these salespeople aren’t “closing” deals with their prospects. Instead, they are opening a relationship with their prospects and, critically, they continue to build the relationship after the sale occurs. In other words, these salespeople are there for their prospects after the check comes in. These salespeople are there to help their now-customers succeed, whether that means using the product or service more effectively or even upselling them on a product or service that can get them even closer to their goals. 

Really, it’s a win-win here. On the customer’s side, he or she is getting a long-term advocate that can continue to provide value after the sale. And on the salesperson’s side, he or she substantially increases the chances of building strong relationships that lead to more sales down the road. 

At Dubb, we are all about offering a sales operating system to our community. The sales operating system is all about connections, conversations, and conversions. Conversions are one of the three “C’s” in the sales operating system. With that said, if you are not making that connection as a friend, you are never going to get to that last “C.” This means that you need to genuinely reach out to your prospects. You need to show that you care. Essentially, you need to be a friend to them—even if that friendship is occurring more in a business setting. 

Nurturing Those Friendships

In the sales context, it is all too easy to think about the initial stages of a relationship. We think about ways that we can meet new prospects and overcome any objections that they may have. We ponder ways that we can more seamlessly have our prospects sign contracts and become paying users of our products or services. 

Now think about this: how often do we have to call our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and cousins to nurture those relationships? I think the answer is every once in a while. Even though we love these family members, we can’t totally ignore them for months or years on end. Doing so, the relationship will become extremely stale.

The same is true when we are thinking about friendships in business. Unfortunately, many of us forget about nurturing relationships. When we think of nurturing, we think about nurturing a garden. Our relationships, however, require investment.

So what does this investment look like? It can come in many different forms. For instance, we can pick up the phone and contact the customer. We can check in and see how she is using our product or service. By better understanding how she is using that product or service, we can even offer tips or strategies on how to get more value from our company. Through this process, you get in an even better position to generate more sales in the future.

Nurturing doesn’t have to be solely about business, however. To continue building that long-term relationship, you can type out a quick email (or send a brief Dubb video) on interesting news in that customer’s sector or industry. It may seem like a little thing, but it shows that you truly care about that customer’s success. It also shows that you are thinking about them—even when you aren’t explicitly selling to them. 

Nurturing can even be more basic than this. It can be a simple compliment on a business success that the customer has achieved. You can find updates on these business successes by visiting the customer’s website or LinkedIn page. While you don’t want to be overly creepy, keeping up with your customers like this gives you another way to strengthen your customer relationships.  

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to nurture your customer relationships. The key to all of this, however, is sincerity. If your sole goal in nurturing the relationship is to generate more and more sales down the road, you are going to find it difficult to build strong, long-term relationships. If you take a genuine interest in the customer, however, you will find this work much easier. So when you are nurturing relationships, make sure that it is sincere. If it isn’t, you are almost wasting your time. 

Leveraging Smart Conversation

While there are plenty of ways to nurture relationships, actually doing so can be easier said than done. You need to be smart about how you are actually conversing with your customers. Ultimately, you don’t want to waste their time (or do anything else that can harm the relationship). 

One of the key rules of smartly conversing with your customers is to lead with value. Let’s face it: you aren’t going to sit down with a friend and discuss something that doesn’t mean anything to them. We’re all busy, and because of this, you want to provide as much value as you can upfront. 

Value can mean different things to different people. For instance, there is functional value. Like I mentioned above, you can do something like send over a quick article or video on news in that customer’s industry. Even if that customer has already seen the article or video, the simple fact that you are sending it to them shows that you care. It shows that you are laser-focused on helping the customer reach their business goals.

There are types of value beyond functional value, however. You can lead with emotional value. If that customer is going through a particularly rough or stressful time in their business, you can send a quick Dubb video expressing your sympathies. You can even volunteer any type of assistance that you think will be valuable in that customer’s time of need. 

A somewhat related example of this occurred during Covid-19. During the early days of Covid-19, there was plenty of uncertainty in our personal and professional lives. Those uncertain moments offered a great opportunity to reconnect with your customers. In fact, in most of those moments, it would have been harmful to try a hard sell of your product or service. By providing some emotional value in a quick Dubb video, for example, you could strengthen that relationship in the most troubling of times.

If you remember anything from this section, remember this. It is absolutely vital to lead with value. It respects your customer’s time and is more valuable for you in the long run. 

Be a Connector

In this conversation about trust, I want to move on and talk about the idea of being a connector. Essentially, a connector is someone that introduces two (or more) people to each other. You are the intermediary that brings together others who did not know (or may not have even known about) each other. Being a connector is a fantastic way to add substantial, long-lasting (even lifetime) value to multiple people. Not only that, but it’s another way to build trust with the people you are connecting with. You are providing value in a different, yet very powerful way. 

Video is a great way to be a connector. It is an easier way to make these connections and you can leverage plenty of features when you are doing so. To show the power of being a connector, I want to share a brief story about Xavier, who is a Dubb customer. Xavier sent me a LinkedIn message to connect me with another individual named Brett. To make this connection, he sent me a Dubb video. In that video, Xavier said that Brett and I had some things in common, and because of that, we should meet. 

What was really neat about that video was that he sent the video to both me and Brett. It was a quick, concise video that explained why we should meet each other. It was an extremely effective way of becoming a connector.

So when you are building trust, think of yourself as a connector. You don’t want to solely connect individuals to your sales process. You also want to connect that person to others so that they can collaborate. Because we have no vested interest in that collaboration, it is that much more powerful. Friendship is all about no vested interests. In a business setting, this can be difficult, though. You have to put your own goals aside and say that this is a long-term play. While it is difficult, it is doable.  

Architecting Your Sales Process on Content

Now, I want to talk about how to build trust in the context of creating content. When we create our sales process based on content, this means that we are constantly thinking about value. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Luckily, in today’s day and age, there are plenty of ways to provide value, whether that comes from tutorial videos, demonstration videos, or something else. 

We don’t want to be in a position where we’re selling. Rather, we want to be educating our audiences. Doing this builds trust and is a much better way to build long, deep lasting relationships.  

So when you start to build a library of content, you get to be in a position of consistently providing valuable content to your audience. That can come in the form of a YouTube channel that educates your audience when you’re sleeping. It can also come in the form of Dubb videos that help bring new prospects into your community. When you think about this, the sky is the limit. 

The point, however, is to build that library. Once you create and distribute enough content, you will have at least one asset to respond to any objections, concerns, or questions that your prospects may have. You may not have necessarily created the video or blog post to specifically address that objection, but that video or blog post can be a huge benefit in helping a specific prospect become a paying customer. This type of content is also scalable. With so much content on so many different topics, it is effectively like cloning yourself. It is scalable and repeatable.

At Dubb, for instance, we have developed a content library as part of Dubb Academy. This is effectively just a collection of videos on how to educate and train people to use the Dubb platform. The great thing here is that we get to use the Dubb Showcase page, which is a constantly evolving channel and page. We can continue adding content to this page by adding tags to our Dubb videos. 

We also offer our Support channel. Each and every one of our articles on our Support channel has a video in them. That makes the entire library extremely educational and shareable. When we talk about leading with value, it’s another way to provide substantial value to each of your prospects. 

You don’t have to have more than one channel to start. You can even begin with one video. By getting into the habit of content creation and creating a central hub for all of your content, you can leverage the power of serendipity. You can continue educating your audience at all hours of the day. Before you know it, you will start to naturally build great relationships at scale.

Leverage Asynchronous Testimonials

Simply put, testimonials are gold for business. They provide immensely powerful social proof and convince prospects to become paying customers. At the same time, it can be awkward to get testimonials. More often than not, the problems are logistical. You may find a customer who absolutely loves your product or service, yet it can be difficult to actually record and receive that testimonial. Much of it comes to scheduling, so there are plenty of back and forth emails to schedule phone conversations or Zoom discussions. 

There is a better way. The asynchronous nature of Dubb makes it much easier to gather testimonials from virtually any type of individual. The power comes in our “reply with video” call to action, which is located below your Dubb video. All someone has to do is click that button and provide their testimonial. It is so easy to record and so easy for you to process and include on your website. 

On your Dubb platform, you can easily look at your calls to action. All you need to do is click on “Assets” and then “Calls to Action.” Doing that, you will see that one of your options is the video reply function. The awesome thing about this function lies in its simplicity. It lets you send a video to someone and then have them send you a video back. To be clear, those responses don’t have to be testimonials. Those responses can be things like feedback, suggestions, or even just comments about human life. 

When you get a response from a video reply, it is essentially validation. It means that the person sending you a video inherently trusts you. They know that you are going to use their video in a positive, productive way. This is extremely powerful and lets you gather effective testimonials for whatever your needs are. 

With all of this in mind, I encourage you to put the video reply function in all of your calls to action. Not only that, but you should include video replies in all of your presets. Presets are a very easy, one-click way to add all of your settings to a video. You can have multiple presets based on the different activities that you are doing. For instance, presets can help you with everything from prospecting and nurturing to client communication. 

In my default preset, you can see that one of my calls to action is the video reply. With that selected, viewers of my videos can easily send a video back to me. When I save that setting on my dashboard, every video that uses this preset will display the video reply button. 

Critically, with presets, the key is to do the work beforehand. Set it and forget it. While this requires some upfront work, you will thank yourself later. And if you don’t choose to use presets? You can still add a video reply button to a specific Dubb video. All you need to do is go to the video details section. If you click on the second tab of the video details page, you can quickly add the video reply call to action. 

To reiterate, the massive unlock that comes from the reply with video feature is asking for a video testimonial. All you need to do is create a Dubb video, send it to your targeted prospect or prospects, and ask for them to record a testimonial via the reply with video button. To be clear, this doesn’t need to be a produced testimonial. In fact, if you try to create a well-produced testimonial, you may find that it will be less effective than a natural, more authentic video. On the other hand, if your target simply picks up their phone and genuinely speaks about how your company provides value in their life, that testimonial video will be extremely effective. People who view that video will see that the speaker is genuinely speaking from their heart. They will be more convinced that your product or service can improve their lives. 

Putting it All Together

It takes time to build trust. However, by using a tool like Dubb, that process can occur much more quickly. You can easily record a video using Dubb mobile app and then take your video replies, tag them, and create a Showcase page to show off all of your video testimonials. You can create this entire setup in just a couple of minutes.

Granted, asking for video testimonials will take some time. You will have to nudge and follow up with some individuals. But once you have around three or six videos, you can create a very nice Showcase page. 

First, what you’ll need to do is record your video using the Dubb mobile app (which you can find here). You can create that video however you’d like, but you will want to ask for the testimonial in the video itself. You will also want to tell them to click on the button below to record the testimonial. Overall, this can be a very quick video (15 or 20-seconds is enough). Once people receive the video and click on the “reply with video” button, you can start to gather testimonials. The great news? You can send your original video as many times as you want. 

On the video edit page, you will notice that the sixth tab is for video replies. You will see all of the various video replies that you captured. To add them to your Dubb account, all you need to do is click the upload button. Then, it is simple to organize those videos.

Importantly, you want to be tagging your videos. If you tag your videos based on how they should be organized and used, it becomes easier to organize those videos. On the video page, the right side has a toggle button, letting you have either a list view or grid view. It’s nice to be able to organize your videos where you can select multiple videos and add a tag. That tag can be “testimonial” (or something similar). 

Then, when you go to your Showcase page, you can see that you can easily add a tag. You can then add your testimonials tag here. The great thing is that all of the videos with that tag are going to automatically appear on your Showcase page. Then, you can customize your Showcase page itself, whether that means changing the background image or something else. Your Showcase page can even have a custom URL. Creating that custom URL, you then have a public page that you can share with others. 

Getting Started

Ultimately, this is the first part of a three-part series on how to build trust when sales prospecting. It is such an important topic that we are dedicating three videos to it. While there has been plenty of detail in this first section, I highly encourage you to get started today. As I’ve said in this post, it takes some time to build trust with any type of sales prospect. Because of this, don’t hesitate to create your first Dubb video today. Go ahead and set your presets and get used to tagging. Your future self is already thanking you.

We always invite you to contact us at Dubb. Whether you want to discuss video sales and marketing or something else, we are here for you. Go ahead and click here to get in touch.