trust is out
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The Edelman Trust Barometer asked 32,000 people a simple question: “When a salesperson says, ‘We’re here to help,’ do you believe them?” Only 18% said yes. That means most people start sales conversations on guard. Brows furrowed. Arms crossed. Scanning for fine print and escape hatches. Trust is out, skepticism is in. Why? Because we’ve all been burned. My first time? Age six. Saw an ad for Sea Monkeys in a comic book. “Eager to please.” “Can be trained.” They looked like 5-foot aliens. I wanted them to beat up my brother. I ordered. Waited. They arrived. Not aliens, brine shrimp. Dead in two days. Lesson learned: our past shapes our trust. People don’t see you. They see every salesperson before you. So the question isn’t, “How do I persuade?” It’s, “How do I earn trust?” You earn it by detaching from the outcome. By being the arbiter of unbiased information. By telling the whole story, not part of it. Saying "We're not for everyone. Here are the benefits and here are the drawbacks." By making people feel heard. By surfacing potential problems, not pushing solutions. Bottom line: No matter what you sell, you're in the trust business. No trust, no transaction. |
Josh Braun
I was at Starbucks and overheard a guy approach a girl. Here’s how it went down. “Hi, my name is Mike. I’m new to the area and was wondering if I could ask you a question?” She said, “Sure.” “What’s your go-to spot for lunch around here?” Her face lit up. “You gotta try Pura Vida. It’s amazing.” Here’s what struck me about what happened next. Instead of jumping in with his own thoughts, he stayed with hers: “What is it about that place?”“What do you get?”“What other places do you like?” She...
I got a biopsy. Now I wait nine days for the results. The hard part isn’t the procedure. It’s the waiting. The mind races. What if it’s cancer? What does this mean? What if, what if, what if…Buddhism talks about two arrows. The first arrow is what happens. The second arrow is the story we tell ourselves about what happens. I can’t control the first arrow. But I can notice when I’m firing the second one. That’s the practice right now. When my mind spins out, I bring it back to the present....
When I was 3, my brother and I loved running around the house naked. Total freedom. Zero shame. Just two little streakers living their best life. Then one weekend, my parents dropped us off at grandma’s. We kept the tradition alive, sprinted through her living room in all our toddler glory. She was not impressed. “What are you doing? Put some clothes on! You should be ashamed of yourself!” Boom. Shame downloaded. And just like that, joy turned into a self-consciousness program running on...