Earning business, getting a job, and building relationships all come down to one concept: KLT - know, like, and trust.
This concept is tremendously simple and it has been beaten into submission over the years but it essentially means the following:
“People do business with people they know, like, and trust”
Nevertheless, if that is the case, then why don’t you have clients banging down your doors to do business with you? After all, you are likeable, trustworthy, and some people know you.
1. How well known are you, really?
Do people know you? Have you sufficiently networked within your target audience? I am talking 100 – 1,000 networking meetings with different people.
Do you publish articles that help your target audience and establish your credibility? Have your articles been published on major or minor industry-relevant publications?
Do you engage with your audience on social media, or do you give speeches to make yourself an expert? In essence, do people really know who you are? Or is it just your friend group that knows?
2. What is your personal brand?
Have you heard what people say about you behind your back? That is your brand. Not everyone is going to like you, and that’s fine. But, do you take a genuine interest in other people? Meaning, do you have similar likes? Or perhaps maybe you don’t, but you can at least recognize and appreciate why they like what they like?
Furthermore, do you ask others for their advice? Do you ask questions? Is your tone friendly when asking those questions, or accusatory? Record yourself when you talk to learn this one.
Being likeable can be as simple as smiling with your whole face when meeting someone, showing someone that they are all that matters in the moment, giving your undivided attention, as well as being genuinely interested in others, and following through on your promises.
3. Do you take people’s secrets to the grave?
Are you really trustworthy? We all like to think we are. But when your friend turns down your business partnership, or investing in your company, it’s largely because they don’t trust you to follow through.
This is a frustrating realization, but there are way’s to get through it.
Trust is the singular most important thing… it follows from knowing someone, and that person liking you. But it goes deeper, someone who likes you but doesn’t trust you will still invite you to hang out… but they will never refer you to clients, they won’t do business with you, and they won’t introduce you to other people.
Why? because you don’t deserve it, you haven’t earned the right; AND it may reflect poorly on them too.
There’s no way to hack trust.
But, here are a couple of things you can do to build it. Do not oversell, be extremely thorough in your research, always follow through, put the other person’s best interest at the front, and keep all personal or client secrets confidential.