Trust is the Name of the Game

by: Rob Reed

That’s the conclusion of CEO Roman Boutellier and Stephan Wagner, head of corporate supply chain management, at SIG, an international packaging technology and machinery group.

They asked 26 purchasing managers in SIG’s strategic business units two questions:

What contributes to your decision to purchase from a particular salesperson?

What do you generally like or dislike about salespeople?

Here’s what they found.

SIG buyers want to deal with sellers who are trustworthy, keep promises, are flexible and creative, and admit it when they don’t know an answer.

They also want to work with salespeople who understand SIG’s problems, are problem-solvers, and know what contribution their products can make to SIG.

Their buyers dislike arrogant, brash, excessively talkative salespeople who make overly insistent efforts to sell. Or as one buyer put it: “Promises everything to make the sale, comes through with nothing.”

The authors concluded that “To be successful, salespeople have to establish inter-personal trust and behave as a trustworthy partner on a daily basis…The approach toward the customer’s buying center and the ability to build up and maintain trust with buyers significantly influence whether salespeople are successful or not.”

Source: “On Successful Salespeople – The Buyer’s Perspective,” Roman Boutellier and Stephen M. Wagner, Thexis, 2003