4 verbal cues that help prospects trust you from the get-go

Salespeople know that there are things you can do over time to build buyers’ trust that you’re competent and willing to help them.

But trust can begin to blossom as soon as your initial meeting with a prospect, depending in large part on whether or not you display the right verbal cues.

This conclusion comes out of a study from Southern Methodist University, which found that people make up their minds whether to trust you or not within minutes, and that these judgments are remarkably consistent from one person to the next.

Taped interviews

In the SMU experiment, researchers videotaped college students who’d been asked to talk about various topics – their classes, their experiences at college, what was going on in their lives at that moment.

Then the researchers showed 90-second snippets of these videos to a second group of students and asked them to evaluate each speaker’s trustworthiness.

The researchers analyzed the language used in the interviews, evaluating such things as how often people used negative words and positive words and how often they referred to themselves. Then the researchers looked at how the language related to trustworthiness.

They found four verbal cues that were associated with high perceived trust:

• Using fewer “negative emotion” words – like “angry,” “sad” and “wrong”
• Speaking in the present tense – statements focused on the here-and-now rather than what’s happened in the past
• Using fewer “I” and “me” statements, and
• Speaking simply and directly.

Direct speech

Nothing on this list will surprise sales professionals. We’ve been taught to be positive, present, customer-focused and clear. What may be less obvious is how deeply these four factors relate to perceptions of trust when you first meet a prospect. They often operate on an unconscious level, sending the message to buyers that you’re willing and able to help them.

Of the four, the one with the greatest impact on trust is simple and direct speech. Researchers measured it by counting the number of “unique words” in each video snippet. People who speak simply use a limited vocabulary of everyday words over and over. Those who clutter their speech with jargon, fillers and qualifiers end up with a higher unique word count, and are perceived as anxious, uncertain or dishonest.

Imagine you told a prospect: “All things being equal, and assuming conditions remain largely in line with current expectations, you can expect to see a reasonable increase in revenues, beginning over the course of 60 to 90 days.”

Does that sound trustworthy? No. By contrast, buyers trust straight talk, as in, “You can expect revenues to go up 6% in a couple of months.”

Negative emotions

Now let’s turn to the other cues that influence trust, starting with negative emotions.

The research found that words such as “angry,” “sad” and “wrong” undermine perceived trustworthiness, even when the speakers were talking about mundane topics. No real surprise there.

But it’s easy for negative language to creep into conversations with prospects, even when we’re trying to be positive and helpful. We might ask, “What would you say is your biggest challenge?” Or “What keeps you up at night?” Later in a relationship, after you’ve built up a reservoir of trust, you can ask questions like that. But in initial encounters, eliciting negative emotions can undermine prospects’ confidence in you.

Of course, you must discover the buyer’s needs. But you can use positive instead of negative language. Instead of asking about the buyer’s biggest challenge (i.e. their pain), ask, “what would the ideal outcome look like for you?” And rather than asking “what keeps you up at night,” ask, “what would help you sleep easier?”

Focus

The last two factors – present tense and fewer “I” statements – seem to be about mindfulness and focus.

Citing your track record with other customers, or your own credentials, takes the spotlight off the buyer’s concerns and puts it on what you did for someone else at another time.

You may think you’re showing willingness and ability to help the prospect, but the “I” language, and references to past successes, cause the buyer to disconnect and erode trust.

This blog entry is adapted from the Rapid Learning module “How prospects first decide whether to trust you.” If you’re a Rapid Learning customer, you can watch the video here. If you’re not, but would like to see this video (or any of our other programs), request a demo and we’ll get you access.

The blog post and Rapid Learning video module are based on the article:

Berry, D.S., et al. (1997). Linguistic bases of social perception. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(5):526.