One of the things that kept me thinking over the past days was a discussion we had last week in a Sales Pitch Battle workshop I led.
It all began after seeing the 3rd pitch. One of the participants gave the following feedback to her colleague: “You came across as trustworthy.”

She was right. The trust was heartfelt.
We never say this to people – but feel it when it’s there (or not)
Trust is a critical component for success.
Without it, you better qualify out since the chances of winning are slim.

But what creates trust? What we arrived at was this:
👉 Being Human
👉 Making it about them
👉 Being “one of them.”
👉 Knowing your stuff – coming across as confident
👉 Being concrete
👉 Show empathy – care – acknowledge the “other” person

We realized it has nothing to do with how good your product is or how famous your company is. These are all table-stakes. You’ll always need to meet specific essential criteria – it’s what happens beyond that, that matters.

Creating trust is about walking the fine line. You can quickly lose it.
We lose trust and credibility if we:
❌. Go high-over – and are being too vague
❌. Come across as insecure or (the other side) overconfident
❌. Make things overly complicated – hard to follow
❌. Brag about ourselves

A lot about this is about paying attention. It’s about showing up as a human. But what I’ve seen as similarly essential is to help our teams feel empowered.

That’s where your value foundation comes in, a framework that spells out the core of the problem(s) you solve and the essence of how you help your customers make a difference, backed up with evidence.

So back to the core question: What thought are your prospects left with after one of your sales execs has visited them?

Is it a feeling of genuine trust? What if not?