Last night I was having a healthy supper and an equally healthy debate about the trials and tribulations of working from home. We both agreed that being based at home was no longer an issue, and if your work involves a laptop, your brain and cloud data; then you can work anywhere.
The real debate started over Zoom Vido calls or phone calls to prospects and customers. Shelley’s response and she happens to be a fan of the phone, was “they don’t need to see me, I have a big brand behind me.”
And it’s true. Her company dominates the space she’s involved in, has a tremendous local reputation which has taken years to ferment.
The same is true for the likes of Nationwide Building Society, Prudential and Virgin Money, which is why these firms will do well in the artificial intelligence selling market, Robo advising and arti type chatbots. Nationwide dealt with a massive proportion of its chat enquiries over payment-holidays using its automated chat service.
You may not be so lucky to have such a brand behind you. You may not be known at all in your marketplace, so you need to work hard and spend time on building trust and your reputation.
Here’s a reminder on how to do that:
- Sprinkle your credibility all over social media and the internet. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is full, blogs are populated with your writings, and your YouTube Channel has some excellent videos about you and your service.
- Have a Zoom background with your certificates and exam rewards.
- Ensure your testimonials are gathered somewhere for people to see. Your website or better still, a third-party site such as vouchedfor, or unbiased.co.uk or www.financiable.co.uk
- Nail the three secrets to trust – common ground, credibility and intent.
- Matching is a great place to start. I have videos on this topic on my YouTube Channel paularcher.tv – or just become a little bit like your customer. On a video, that means facial expressions, eye contact matching, voice matching, pace and energy.
- Outlining your intentions is often forgotten. Ensure your customer knows what you’re about, why do you do what you do. How your sales process works, how long you’ll speak for and so on. Signpost your video calls, so customers know where you’re going.
- Learn to be a masterful communicator online.
High trust is paramount but can be broken in an instance.
