The 21st century has revolutionized the way business in conducted worldwide. The world wide web connects nearly every home to companies in foreign nations as well as the teenager with a blog. The internet is the most powerful form of communication in the world and is the best tool for building a business. Unfortunately, scams, liars, and cheats also recognize the power of the web and use it to attack honest folks. How can your business separate itself from the cheats?



There is a saying that Zig Ziglar has made very popular in recent years. If you haven't heard it yet you can expect to hear it frequently in the future, especially if your future includes business dealings. The idea is really the essence behind building trust with any clientele. It goes like this:

"You can have anything in the world that you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want." -Zig Ziglar

The point is that any successful business deal must give the client just what he wants and thereby establish the integrity of the company. Many people believe that win-win business deals are ideals of young fools who have no sense of reality. This attitude couldn't be further from the truth. All successful deals must be win-win or else the customer would never buy. If a customer perceives that he or she is being ripped off, there is absolutely no incentive to buy from you because they know that you cannot be trusted.

A successful salesman, therefore, is one who is confident in his product or service and can successfully communicate the unique benefits that the customer can obtain only by buying from you. The presenter must be very conscious of all communication, verbal and nonverbal, so that there is nothing to alert the customer that anything dishonest is afoot. The best way for a salesperson to be at ease is to offer an honest product or service. When the prospects start asking the difficult questions, the salesperson won't have to stammer and make excuses because he or she is totally sold on the product themselves. If your product doesn't do such-and-such that your prospect is asking about, answer honestly and admit the fault. By admitting a fault, the prospect will see that you're honest and you actually win a point by conceding a negative. Make sure, however, that if your prospect does not choose to buy your product, refer to someone who offers what they are looking for (in exchange for a finder's fee, of course).

Honest business will ultimately generate increasing trust in you as a salesperson and it won't be long before your clients will be marketing your business for you because you delivered such high quality and honest service. Save the marketing money for your much-deserved pay raise for learning to gain the trust of your clients and assist everybody in getting what they wanted.