A RAMP to your client's Trust

A climber leans back on the rope showing full trust in his partner.

RAMP is a very powerful acronym. It is a great way to visualize the essential steps that we must take to sell our services.

It also implicitly conveys the notion that the development of trust is the most vital element of the process, and that it must be advanced in small steps at a time.

So, let’s take a look at what these wayposts are:

1. Recognize

First of all, people must know you. If they don’t, your chances of catering your services to them are obviously nil.

You could start by encouraging your current relations to introduce you to their own relations, those that may be a good match with what you do.

In other words, it’s vital that you create opportunities. Not one or two a day, but, maybe twenty calls and settle for 5 appointments each and every day. Lunch anyone?

These first “getting to know you” calls are an excellent opportunity for asking about their needs. Their needs will allow you to see your fit, —if there is one—, to customize your service offering.

2. Articulate

Now that they know you, they must be able to tell what you do. If they don’t know what you do, again, they’ll never feel like they missed you when their need arises.

I hope that you are picking up on another underlying and important concept, repetition. We all need to have things told to us over and over, many times, in order to develop an appropriate response.

3. Memorize

I’m sure you remember when you had that guy’s name in the tip of your tongue, but, you couldn’t remember.

Don’t let that happen to you. Call or visit your client a few more times, and of course, repeat, repeat and repeat what your services are.

Repeat how your services fill his needs. By the way, have you asked enough to understand his needs? Are you able to present a solid case of where you may be a good fit to his needs? If not, run, you’re wasting theirs and your time.

So, remember, they must remember you when they need you.

4. Prefer

We usually have competition. Most of the time it’s against not spending, and your client toying with the idea of doing it himself.

Building trust is all about delivering on your commitments. Show them what you’ve done, present testimonials, visit a happy client.

At this stage, you have to carefully ponder the level of trust that you have achieved with your client.

Taking a small step is the best approach. To offer an inexpensive introductory package, or even a free consultation period, may go a long ways into getting that first foot in the door, and into being able to garner his trust and respect for a job well done.

The alternative is to risk it all, to attempt to sell a service for which your customer is not prepared to accept.

Bottom line, your client must arrive at a stage to prefer your services.

To sum up, we gradually build our prospect’s confidence level, building his trust one small step at a time.

You start by hustling to increase your network’s size of “friends”, allowing for failure on many of those calls to get a few appointments. Then, you repeat your visits to make sure they learn what you do, and are willing and capable of arguing your case to their boss and peers when the need for your services materializes.

Of course, the basic underlying tenet is that you are building a relationship based on trust.

If you want to dig deeper into the sub­ject, I encour­age you to read Professional Services Marketing by Doerr and Schultz.