How to Build Trust in Selling: Share Competitors with Prospects???

I'm currently looking for on line survey vendors to set up a survey for one of my clients. I ran across a great example of something you should consider implementing in an on line and/or offline environment to build greater levels of trust with your prospects.

On their site, SurveyMonkey lists the websites of over 30 of their competitors. That's right. The COMPETITION...

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Pricing.asp

That's powerful stuff. Here's why:

1. Prospects are much more likely to perceive that you're truly concerned about their needs if you help them buy rather than sell to them. Empathy is one of the four key trust components. By offering a list of competitor links, SurveyMonkey is saving prospects a lot of time and angst searching for survey providers.
2. It's unexpected. Most companies or sellers don't come out and offer you a list and websites of their competitors. This clearly differentiates SurveyMonkey from the rest.
3. Prospects will perceive that you have unquestionable confidence in your product or service. Hey, if you believe in your product or service so much that you'll give me the name and links to your competitors, you must have a really good product or service. In fact, if you've built enough trust to overcome my perceived risk, I may not even spend my valuable time researching the list of competitors you just offered.

If you sell face-to-face, try to develop a sincere way to help your prospects out by suggesting other solution providers to consider. See what happens. Perhaps try it out with your "ideal prospects" where you have more confidence and think you offer the best fit versus your competitors. Track your results and if favorable, test it out on more "competitive" prospects.

If you're on line, try doing something similar to SurveyMonkey and see what kind of conversion you get versus your baseline. You can check out over 30 more building trust sales tips by clicking the link.

BTW: I'm not affiliated in any way and I am not receiving any "freebies" or any other form of compensation from SurveyMonkey. I just think they've consciously or unconsciously done something very smart to build greater trust levels with prospects...

Best,

Rob Reed

Terrakon Sales and Internet Marketing Consulting

Comments

[Tom Markiewicz]

Did you end up deciding on SurveyMonkey for your client? What other survey services do you find to be comparable? I'm trying to find one that will charge on a per-use basis rather than monthly.

[Ed McLean (www.SalesItch.com)]

The prospect is likely to contact your competitors anyway. Rob's right, by giving them this info yourself you are building credibility and standing out from the crowd.