The Pro: Aaron Greenberg
Title: Vice President of National Accounts
Company: Genumark Promotional Merchandise (asi/204588)

When asked about trust, Aaron Greenberg says trustworthy reps do more than just make sales – they have to be true partners for their prospects and clients. “You want to be their first call or the only call,” he says. “Often it goes beyond just the sale. When they trust you, they want your advice and your honest opinion. They’re not just calling for a product saying, ‘Someone else showed me this price. What can you give me?’”

Presenting yourself as the rep to call starts with confidence. When you first meet with prospects, lay out your credentials and your company’s industry designations, and let them know about the experience and expertise you have. But don’t overdo it. Make sure the conversation is focused on them.

“Prove that you’re not a fly-by-night rep or company,” says Greenberg. “And sometimes, you just have to stay in touch with them for a long time and build trust that way before they even buy anything. But reps have a tendency to just look at the short-term process of closing sales.”

One way to position yourself as an adviser is to be honest with why a product the client is admiring may not work for her needs. “Say she wants to use whiskey glasses, but the event is in a city that most attendees will have to fly to,” says Greenberg. “We’ll tell her people might not want to fly home with glass in their luggage. It’s little things like that, but it goes a long way.”

69% of B2B buyers say a sales rep can make the buying experience more positive by listening to their needs, and by not being pushy (61%). (HubSpot)

Another way to build trust: Help clients save money on the product and imprint method. “That shows you’re looking out for their best interest,” says Greenberg. “And always follow up with them to show you care about creating that trust.”

One caveat: Prepare clients to have a different experience over time. “Sometimes you answer the call, create six samples for them and get the order out all in the same day,” he says. “But then they need to understand that today, you were doing all that for someone else.” Clients shouldn’t expect you to move heaven and Earth every single time, but still should know that you’ll come through for them again in heroic fashion when the circumstances call for it.

Trust can be broken – or bolstered – when things go wrong. Greenberg has been serving one client for more than 20 years, and it’s a relationship strengthened by trust. But that wasn’t a sure thing when they were first working together. The first order the client ever placed with Genumark was for a custom molded product with a built-in imprint. But when the two molded parts were put together, the imprint didn’t line up. And it was the night before the event.

“I had to go deliver the bad news to my brand-new client,” says Greenberg. “She could see I had been up all night. I hadn’t shaven or even changed my clothes. I said, ‘This product isn’t working and I’m sorry.’ But she saw how much I cared, and she’s still my client more than 20 years later. There’s total trust in our back-and-forth. We respect each other’s opinions and we’re true allies.”

Trust really comes down to what the distributor does when things go wrong. Greenberg says clients have told him other distributors just walked away. “Take responsibility for your actions, and sometimes theirs when it’s a gray situation,” he says. “And always tell them the truth. Don’t give them a line and they find out it’s not true, like saying a supplier is only offering a discount until the end of that day. We want to be perceived as partners and consultants, but we aren’t given a lot of chances.”