Before you can deliver a remarkable client experience for the purpose of building growth in your organization, you must win the opportunity of partnership with your prospect. In order to do that, you must build trust. In order to do that again, you must hold trust.
entreQuest considers trust the culminating force of three factors: reliability, sincerity, and competence. The full definition of “The Trust Model” is available in an article published a few years ago by entreQuest at this link: http://www.entrequest.com/wp-content/pdf/entrequest_trustmodel_06.04.pdf?phpMyAdmin=d2c4aa6766ft5760658.
Sometimes the best model you can have for how to act professionally are those who have exemplified excellence to you personally. Who comes to mind when you think of trust? Your mom? Your dad? Your oldest friend? A teacher? A coach? A former co-worker? A psychiatrist? Who is that person that you could rely on, that you knew acted sincere, and that had the competence to help you succeed?
In her own way, Oprah Winfrey could be considered America’s trust model. For years, her frequency allowed us to rely on her every afternoon for a learning experience about issues that we considered important and relevant. Her humanness allowed us to find her sincere as she shared our same struggles and did not hide her real emotions which also enabled her to speak in our voice. Her long list of achievements allowed us to believe in her competence and we profited from our investment in her abilities to comfort our anxiety, ease our pain, celebrate our victories, and love ourselves.
Our trust in Oprah turned her loyal viewing audience into her book club, her magazine subscription circulation, her movie fan base, her charity donors, and the core of her very own network now, among countless other O outlets. Interestingly though, the women and men that make up her clients probably don’t think of themselves as paying consumers to the multiple revenue streams of Oprah's empire. They see only the benefits of trusting Oprah – so much so that for the most part, society never chides her for her net worth of billions as might be common with other wealthy individuals who lead worldwide moneymakers in the private sector. Instead it would appear that participation and purchases in Oprah’s brands are not viewed as transactions from a conglomerate but rather they are considered gifts to their own inner spirits.
How will you be the Oprah to your world? How will you be the trust model to your clients? You already have the ingredients in you – reliability, sincerity, and competence – so now it’s time to use your personal traits for professional growth. And you can do it. You can be as trustworthy as the individual you trust the most and yes, you can even wind up as profitable as Oprah.
Trust in yourself too and you will do it.
Misti Aaronson is the Vice President of Operations at entreQuest who leads both internal initiatives for the company and external engagements with clients to ensure that every experience delivered by eQ is nothing short of remarkable.
