Over the past few years I have met with hundreds of customers. I have always wondered why they choose us or not choose us for a project. I know some of the reasons customers choose a contractor like; it was referred by someone you trust or you know someone at the company. These are easy to understand but what about the people who say “we just had a good feeling about them”. That is the reason I am trying to understand more.  We loose jobs and win jobs with this reason.  What “feeling” is it that someone feels good about? It is trust, sincerity, generosity or a little bit of all of that? My guess is trust is a major factor of the “feeling”. I wouldn’t let someone do work on my house unless I trusted them. But what makes someone trust one person more than the other. This is where it gets quite non-logical hence subjective to the individual.

Factors that make me trust someone is do they look me in the eye when they have an important point to make. How they shake my hand when I first meet them, is it stiff or are they relaxed. Does the person need to be talking or can they listen as much as they talk? Are they staying on a topic or are they trying to cover too many topics in a short period of time? Someone who makes a lot of compliments about me also makes me second guess the person intentions. This is what affects me and how I judge if a person is trustworthy. I am sure others have different things that make them feel that way but is my criteria. I think I just answered my question. There is really no way to have everyone trust you in the first meeting since everyone has different factors for trust. Sometimes the criterion just doesn’t match with what is being portrayed. But what if you could alter the way you interact with someone based on clues they would give you on how they trust someone.

Here is an idea, you should ask every person you meet for the first time what makes them trust someone. Then you could possibly change the way you presented trust factors to them. Although that sounds quite manipulative and it would probably cause someone “not” to trust you.

I will just keep acting like I act and keep hiring great people who I can trust and then hopefully that will match up with a lot of other peoples trust meters.  That is what someone needs to invent. A trust meter. That would be a great hiring tool that I would buy.  Have an Amazing Day.

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