Building Trust With Prospects

Clients decide if they trust you in seconds. (Here’s how to earn it… Fast.) ❌ Not after the introduction. ❌ Not after the proposal. ❌ Not after the pitch. Right at the start. They’re not waiting to be impressed. They’re watching for signals. Signals that say you're trustworthy. Signals that show you care. Here are 4 that matter most 👇 1. Genuine Curiosity ↳ Trust starts when you stop talking. → Ask before you advise → Listen like it matters → Show you’ve done the work ✅ If they feel heard, they’ll want to hear more. 2. Specific Language ↳ Generic doesn’t build trust. Personal does. → Use their words → Skip the buzzwords → Tie ideas to their world ✅ They don’t want a pitch. They want relevance. 3. Dependability ↳ Clients notice the little things. → Showing up on time → Remembering details → Doing what you said ✅ Keep the small promises, and you'll earn the big ones. 4. Confidence ↳ You don’t need to push. → It’s okay to say “not now” → It’s smart to walk away → It’s powerful to let them decide ✅ Confidence says: “I’m here to help, not chase.” The truth is: Trust isn’t built by showing up perfectly. It’s built by showing up meaningfully.  From the first moment on. These 4 signals help you build trust and keep it. But more than that? They make you someone clients want in the room. Not just for the transaction. For the decisions that matter. Agree? disagree?  I'd love to hear your view in the comments! ♻️ Valuable? Repost to help someone in your network. 📌 Follow Mo Bunnell for client-growth strategies that don’t feel like selling. Want the full infographic? Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/e3qRVJRf  

I warmed up a prospect for 3 months on LinkedIn before our first call. They signed a £75K deal in 3 days. Modern selling demands a new approach: cold outreach fails, warm relationships win. Think about it... That prospect had consumed 47 of my posts. Watched my videos. Read my articles. Engaged with my content. By the time we jumped on that first call? They already trusted me. They already knew my approach. They already understood the value. I didn't have to sell them. They'd already sold themselves. Here's my framework for turning content into closed deals: 👇 1. Build trust at scale BEFORE the pitch Stop spraying and praying with cold messages. Start building relationships through value. Each post builds trust. Your insights mark credibility. Stories create connection. Your content is doing the heavy lifting while you sleep. 2. Let buyers self-educate on THEIR timeline Modern buyers don't want to be sold to. They want to discover solutions themselves. ↳ 70% of the buying journey happens before they talk to sales ↳ They're researching you before you even know they exist ↳ Your content is either attracting or repelling them Give them what they need to make informed decisions. 3. Recognize the REAL buying signals Forget MQLs and SQLs. Think about PQLs (product qualified leads) Here's what actually matters: - Multiple engagements across different posts - Bringing colleagues into the conversation - Asking specific, detailed questions - Moving from public comments to private messages These aren't leads. These are pre-qualified buyers. 4. Keep momentum BETWEEN meetings Here's where most deals die: The 167 hours between your calls. While you're chasing other prospects, your buyer is: ↳ Getting cold feet ↳ Talking to competitors ↳ Forgetting why they were excited Smart sellers stay present even when they're not there. This is where tools like Consensus come in. They let buyers explore demos on their own time. Answer their questions at 10 PM. Share materials with their team. Stay engaged between touchpoints. It's how you keep social selling momentum right through the demo stage. https://lnkd.in/ePVWw-Bi 5. Close with confidence, not pressure When trust is already built? When value is already proven? When buyers are already educated? Closing feels natural, not like a battle. The best deals I've ever closed felt inevitable. Because the relationship started months before the opportunity. Here's what this approach delivers (in my experience): ✓ Significantly faster sales cycles ✓ Much higher close rates ✓ Bigger deal sizes (pre-sold = less negotiation) ✓ Happier customers (they chose you, not the other way around) Stop thinking of social selling as "nice to have." Start treating it as your primary sales strategy. Your next big deal isn't in your CRM. They're scrolling LinkedIn right now. What content are you creating to catch them? #ConsensusPartner

I’ll never forget something a CEO taught me early in my career. He would stop by my desk regularly. No agenda. No formalities. At first, it felt routine. But over time, I began to see the pattern. Just a simple, “How’s it going?” At the time, it seemed insignificant – a polite hello. But now, I see it for what it was: a trust-building moment. His casual approach made it easier for me to open up, share my concerns, and speak honestly. It wasn’t about the words.  It was about the intention behind them. Trust doesn’t just happen. It’s built with consistency, action, and a lot of listening. As a leader today, I do my best to do the same. If your team isn’t approaching you, here’s what may help: - Be present.  ↳ When someone comes to you, put everything else aside and truly listen. - Avoid shutting them down.  ↳ The first “no” can be the last time they trust you with their ideas. - Go to them.  ↳ Don’t wait for trust to walk through your door, go and build it where they are. Here’s something not many will tell you: If your team isn’t coming to you, it’s not on them. It’s on you. So go to them. Because trust isn’t a gift – it’s a responsibility.

Trust isn't complicated. But most people get it wrong. Let me explain. I analyzed 500+ sales conversations and found something shocking: The highest-performing reps weren't using fancy trust-building techniques. They were using these 3 simple triggers that nobody talks about: 1. Real-time validation 🚫 Not customer logos 🚫 Not case studies 🚫 Not testimonials But showing prospects LIVE: → Who's viewing their content right now → Questions others are asking → Active engagement metrics Result? 73% higher meeting show rates. 2. Reverse referrals Instead of asking for referrals, document exactly: → How others found you → Their specific journey → Their exact results I tested this with 50 prospects: ✅ 41% response rate ✅ 28% meeting rate ✅ 19% close rate 3. Ambient reassurance Small, consistent actions that build trust: → Weekly performance updates → Public progress tracking → Regular capability proof My team's results: ✅ Trust scores up 47% ✅ Sales cycle shortened by 31% ✅ Close rates increased 22% Here's what nobody tells you: Trust isn't built through big gestures. It's built through small, consistent actions that prove you're reliable. I implemented these triggers last quarter: → Pipeline increased 52% → Close rate jumped 31% → Average deal size up 27% I’ve broken down this full framework above so you can study it, save it, and start applying it immediately. Remember: While others focus on complex trust-building strategies, these simple triggers consistently outperform. Ready to transform your trust-building approach? Let's connect. #SalesStrategy #TrustBuilding #B2BSales #GrowthHacking #RevenueLeadership

After three decades in the mortgage business, one thing is clear to me: fighting over price at the 'point of sale' is a losing game. Stop Chasing the 'Best Price'—Start Owning the Conversation The 'point of sale' is where Loan Officers scramble to undercut each other, hoping to win on price alone. But hope isn’t a strategy, and price wars rarely lead to lasting success. The real opportunity lies earlier—at the 'point of thought.' This is where relationships begin, trust is built, and value is created. It’s where you can truly differentiate yourself by offering more than just a rate. How? By playing the long game: ✅ Educate your clients about credit, budgeting, and the home-buying process. ✅ Provide tools and resources that help them prepare for their financial journey. ✅ Host workshops, webinars, and consultations that empower and inspire. The magic happens when you stop chasing quick wins and start engaging deeply, months (or even years) before a client is ready to buy. This isn’t just a strategy; it’s a mindset shift. By delivering value early and often, you’ll build trust and loyalty that not only sets you apart but ensures you’re the first call when the time comes. Are you still fighting over price, or are you creating value at the point of thought?

As a B2B founder, here’s the industry noise I refuse to buy anymore: → “Just double your outreach and you’ll hit pipeline targets.” The so-called “growth experts” make it sound like more cold emails+DMs = more deals. If that were true, majority founders would be at $10M ARR by now. But every week, I see hundreds of smart founders quietly burning budget, chasing reply rates in the low single digits, then blaming themselves when deals stall or go silent. → “You need flashier content to cut through.” No, you don’t. You need content that’s written from the buyer’s perspective. Not viral hacks, but messages that address your buyers’ biggest anxieties. That’s how trust is built. By being the one person who finally speaks to what nobody will say out loud. I learned this after working with 100+ tech founders. → “Keep automating. If you’re not scaling, you’re not trying hard enough.” We all get seduced by automation. I did too. Until a “scaled” outbound campaign nearly nuked our sender reputation and buried pipeline for months. And worse - took thousands to outreach to crack messag-market-fit. It wasn’t automation that fixed it... it was slowing down, mapping the actual buyer journey, and engineering outbound after we earned visibility and credibility in the community. → “Your case studies, your offer, your grit are enough.” Absolute lie. The founders breaking out now aren’t working harder; They’re getting seen by the right buyers (organically), deepening authority, building buyer certainty before the first DM. Few quarters ago, we stopped tracking MQLs and only focussed on building qualified leads. Revenue went up. Stress went down. I’ll never go back. B2B tech isn’t a lottery. It’s about obsessing over what your real buyers truly want. If you want inbound calls from buyers ready to trust and buy, fix the invisible stuff that’s keeping you out of their line of sight. And without cracking inbound, your growth is more painful and risky. Stop playing by the propaganda, Start building on truth. #SaaS #GenerativeAI #GTM #Sales #DemandGeneration

One of my client companies recently made a bold shift: They replaced their Engagement KPI with a Trust KPI. And it’s one of the smartest moves I’ve seen. Why? Because trust is not a byproduct of engagement - it’s the precondition. 📚 Research backs this up: A meta-analysis by De Jong et al. (2016) found that team trust is a strong predictor of performance, especially in high-interdependence teams. Yet we treat trust like something we either have or don’t. 👉But trust isn’t a mood but rather a design decision. To start with, we need to understand 3 types of trust: 1. Cognitive 2. Affective 3. Swift Most leaders focus on cognitive or affective trust - built over time. But there’s a third type they don’t know about: Swift Trust. 📍Swift Trust forms quickly in temporary, remote, or fast-moving teams. It doesn’t require deep familiarity, it requires structure. And here’s how leaders can engineer it: ✔️ Start with clearly defined roles and expectations ✔️ Align fast around shared goals and purpose ✔️ Create quick wins that build early credibility ✔️ Model openness and ask for input from day one ✔️ Name the importance of trust explicitly In other words, trust isn’t “earned slowly” in every context. It can be catalyzed intentionally if you know how. That’s what I’m helping this client do: not just educate about trust but build it inside the team with psychological safety and my method, one behavior and ritual at a time. Because when trust becomes a designed feature, not an accidental outcome - performance, inclusion, and engagement follow. P.S.: Which type of trust is most alive in your team right now?

People don’t buy from brands—they buy from people they trust. Trust is the foundation of every successful social media sale. Some think flashy ads and viral posts are the key to social media sales. But the truth? Consistent trust-building beats short-term gimmicks every time. Show up consistently with valuable content. Engage genuinely with your audience—respond to comments, ask questions, and be human. Share testimonials and real customer stories to showcase authenticity. Be transparent—if you make a mistake, own it and make it right. Many believe that selling on social media is about having a large following. In reality, a smaller, engaged audience that trusts you can outperform massive, unengaged followers. I’ve spent years helping brands build trust on social media, transforming their online presence from overlooked to overbooked. I’ve seen firsthand that trust is the currency of the online world. When I started my journey into social media marketing, I thought success was all about going viral. I chased trends, tried every hack, and yet, sales were flat. Gradually, I shifted my focus to trust. I started listening to my audience, providing real value, and showing up authentically. The transformation was slow, but steady. Sales began to climb, not because of a single viral moment, but because my audience trusted me. In the noisy world of social media, trust is your superpower. Build it, nurture it, and watch your business thrive. #branding #socialmediastrategist

We have a client who runs a 20-person agency that does (1) cold email and (2) our service of content & warm outbound on LinkedIn. Our client always tells us: “The leads we get through LinkedIn are consistently more engaged. They come in already understanding what we do, with a strong sense of our vibe and expertise. There’s no need to build trust from scratch - so we’re able to move into real business conversations much faster.” Because right now you have 2 options: Option 1: 5 SDRs with zero brand presence - where buyers come through cold. Mass scale using automation because you need such high volumes to get sufficient responses. But the leads don’t know who you are or what you really do. It feels salesy and they’re probs not the best leads. Option 2: You build a content & outbound approach on LinkedIn through your CEO/Founder. They’ve seen your posts, been intrigued by your profile, they know your name, your face, your results… and they’re now invested. They’ve come through warm, not cold. They’re more qualified, more likely to buy & more likely to be an aligned fit. That’s the power of turning LinkedIn into a channel - you build long-term brand awareness; you generate inbound deal flow; and you can generate 5-20 SQLs each month through targeted outbound where leads are aligned, qualified and invested. Because outbound still works. But when it’s powered by content and credibility, it works better.

Building a business, especially one targeting enterprises, is as much about understanding objections as it is about delivering value. Recently, during a client call, I found myself revisiting a familiar scenario—a moment that mirrored countless conversations I’ve had while growing an agency. When we first started Intelekt AI my idea of selling was almost childlike in its simplicity - We build, they buy, and the journey begins. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. In B2B, the decision-making landscape is nuanced, and the stakeholders have evolved. It’s no longer just the CFO scrutinizing risk; every decision-maker is now focused on de-risking, questioning not just what they’re buying but why they should trust it. Midway through this discussion—caught between hypothetical projections and a detailed back-and-forth—I paused and asked, “What’s the one thing stopping you from signing this contract today?” The response was immediate, “We need to know that you’re as invested in this outcome as we are.” In that moment, I could’ve leaned on the strength of our track record, showcasing all the clients who thrive with our model. But I realized this wasn’t about proof. It was about empathy. Instead of defending our approach, I chose to address their concern directly. But here’s the key: the solution wasn’t to change the essence of our model. It shouldn’t be. Instead, I proposed an adjustment, adding a clause to our engagement that aligned our long-term success with theirs—a mechanism that ensured accountability for their goals without jeopardizing the principles that make our work sustainable. That moment of thinking on my feet, guided by empathy, not only preserved the conversation but likely secured a future client. Here’s what I’ve learned: objections aren’t barriers—they’re invitations. They’re a chance to step into the customer’s world, understand their hesitations, and create solutions that honor both their needs and your own. Empathy isn’t just a strategy. It’s the foundation of trust, and trust is what enterprises buy.