Building Infinite Trust

Soon it will be Pi Day! No, not pie—PI! A number that goes on forever, just like trust. Trust is infinite, growing stronger with every act of honesty and consistency. In travel and beyond, trust is the foundation that keeps us moving forward—no matter the destination.

Building trust with your client is a vital part of the sales cycle. Everyone can make a mistake from time to time when working with new leads. But making—and correcting—mistakes creates a wonderful opportunity to gain and keep your clients’ trust and loyalty. To learn how to fix mistakes and to adopt winning strategies in converting quotes to sales, we turn to an expert—one of our Professional Educators Program (PEP) members, Dana Zificsak, CTIE, Travel Agent Educator and founder of Guts Grit Goals LLC. Sign up for her PEP Talk, Why They Don’t Book with You, presented TODAY at 1:00 pm (ET).

For comprehensive learning about the sales cycle, enroll in our award-winning Certified Travel Associate course. The following excerpt is from that course.

Selling is a part of what you do every day. You are a people person, which is why you’ve entered a service profession. Your focus—first and foremost—with each encounter is to find and sell the perfect product to your customer.

To do that, you must earn your client’s trust. 

Building Trust

Trust begins with your first interaction with a potential customer. Strong interpersonal skills—both verbal and nonverbal—help you come across as competent, confident, and credible from the start.

Here are a few communication skills you can use to help you build trust during your sales encounters.

• Be enthusiastic and interested. Successful salespeople know the best way to make a friend is to be a friend. Customers need to know that you care about your job and about servicing their needs. You can communicate this by using expressive gestures, well-paced speech, vocal variety in tone and volume, eye contact, and sincere facial expressions. Even when you are on the phone, be sure to smile. Your listener actually can hear it!

• Listen. As simple as it sounds, it is very easy to let this basic element of communication fade in the surrounding commotion. Often, we hear what is being said, but we don’t thoughtfully process its meaning or listen for hidden meanings. Just as you know when someone is not listening to you, your customer knows when you’re not listening (especially if you are repeatedly asking, “On the 28th, or was that the 27th?”). 

• Appreciate feedback. Invite your customer to respond to your suggestions. Don’t fear negative comments. They provide the best opportunity to dig deeper and to find out how to satisfy your customers’ needs. And when you show a sincere desire to please, the customer will see you as genuine, interested, and trustworthy.

• Be responsive and approachable at all times. This means that you should provide as many ways as possible for customers to reach you and that you respond quickly when they do contact you. It also means that, if you say you will call them later with information, you keep that promise.

• Be accountable. If you make a mistake, own up to it and fix it promptly. Instead of losing the clients’ trust, this honesty will go a long way toward securing it in this transaction and in future ones.
As a travel professional, it’s your duty to communicate effectively for your clients. As a salesperson, it’s in your best interest. At a minimum, show appreciation for their business. How you communicate shapes trust and fosters lasting relationships.