How To Gain Someone’s Trust

How To Gain Someone's Trust

Knowing the secret to gaining someone’s trust is very important knowledge to have, especially as an entrepreneur or salesperson. Learning the process for this is beneficial on all levels. When you are trustworthy, people generally draw closer to you and you can build better relationships. Not only that, but knowing how to gain someone’s trust can equally help you be better in business dealings, and sell more.

It is often said that trust is difficult to gain but very easy to lose. 

The truthfulness of that statement cannot be argued. 

Humans generally have a natural inclination to distrust people or lack belief in them. 

This is often a result of bad experiences they must have had in the past, or for other reasons. 

However, as difficult as it might be to gain someone’s trust, it has to be done. 

This is especially important when you need to build relationships with people.

Every thriving relationship is built on trust, and a relationship that lacks this cannot succeed. 

In your line of business as well, you always have to build relationships with people.

These might be your customers or business partners, all of who are essential to your business growth.

If you cannot gain the trust of these people, it would be impossible for them to do business with you. 

Every business transaction you do or business deal you close is a result of mutual trust between you the seller, and the buyer. 

And this is just one of the reasons why you need to learn how to gain someone’s trust. 

We will discuss the skill you need to develop for you to gain people’s trust in this article.

But first, let us see what it means. 

How to Gain Someone’s Trust – Meaning 

The word “Trust” means having a firm belief in the ability, truth, or reliability of someone or something.

Hence, when someone tells you: “I trust you”, it simply means they have a strong belief in you. 

It could be that they give you responsibility or count on you to deliver a task or carry out a duty for them. 

Hence, when they say they trust you, they are in effect saying that they are confident in your ability to deliver. 

We see trust play out every day in our interactions with people. 

When a customer or prospect gives you money in exchange for your product or services, they are showing their trust in you. 

This they do even when they might not have all the details as to how the product or service will turn out. 

Also, you see trust in play when people rely on you to come through for them even when they are just transacting business with you for the first time. 

When trust is there, business transactions go smoothly, and solid relationships are built easily. 

However, the one thing with trust is that it doesn’t just happen. 

Trust is not a product of accident and it is not easily given to someone. 

Usually, you need to earn the other party’s trust if they are going to give it to you.

And that is why we are currently considering how to gain someone’s trust. 

Before seeing some of the factors that make it difficult to gain someone’s trust, let’s see why it is important. 

Why It Is Important to Gain Trust 

Trust is the backbone of every type of relationship, such as romantic ones and especially in this context, business relationships. 

When there is mutual trust between two or more parties, a smooth relationship happens naturally, and it grows. 

Here are some of the benefits of working to gain the trust of someone:

Gaining Someone’s Trust Allows You to Take Risks 

Gaining the trust of others, especially co-workers or managers on your team is essential for risk-taking.

And from your experience, you will agree that taking risks is integral to innovation and creativity on the team.

When there is no trust, you tend to play it safe always, and things will continue the way they’ve always been. 

However, when there is trust from someone else to you, i.e you can gain it, they allow you to try out new things. 

That way, you can be more innovative and come up with new solutions, methods, and strategies.

All of these are essential for business growth. 

Gaining Somone’s Trust Gives Encourages Quick Decisions 

Decision-making is an integral part of every business organization, and this happens daily. 

You might be in a position where you have someone at the top to who you are answerable. 

If you are not able to gain the trust of this person, you will find that many of the decisions you need to take will suffer. 

It means that you will need to wait on the approval and directive of the superior authority before you can get anything done. 

On the other hand, when you can gain their trust, you enjoy more freedom in making important and urgent decisions. 

With this structure and provision in place, everything moves faster, and work efficiency is on the high, as decisions are taken quickly. 

Gaining Customers’ Trust Help You Sell Faster 

There is also an advantage or benefit of gaining trust for your sales as a businessman or woman. 

Every sales process is dependent on the trust that exists between a seller and a buyer. 

Without mutual trust, it would be hard to do business. 

Especially when you are the seller or the one rendering the services, you need to gain the trust of someone you wish to sell to. 

It is this trust they have in you that makes them confident enough to give their money to you and believe you will give them the value for it. 

Sometimes, you might even come up with new products or services and expect that your existing customers and prospects key into this. 

The only way they can do this is when you have been able to gain their trust in you. 

Trust in you is also essential when you place your products on a pre-order basis, confident of people keeping their money with you even before seeing what they pay for. 

Hence, learning the secret to gaining someone’s trust is essential to making big sales for you as a salesperson. 

Gaining Employee’s Trust Improves Internal Communication

For every relationship, open and constant communication is essential to its growth.

The relationship between you as an employer and your employees is not an exemption.

For you to improve this communication though, there must be mutual trust. 

You must gain the trust of someone who is your employee. 

When they trust you, they are more open to communicating freely with you, not holding back due to some fears. 

Without trust, communication will be difficult, as there will be lingering doubts in the minds of your employees. 

They might have hidden fears that their words will be misunderstood or used against them. 

This can cause a breakdown in communication since trust is not present. 

Trust Gives a Sense of Safety 

Gaining someone’s trust especially in the business environment can also give us a sense of safety. 

That way, we are not always second-guessing the motives of others or being too careful when we need to make decisions or take certain actions. 

Instead, they believe in us and we also feel the same about them. 

And this creates a safe and secure environment great work and better working conditions. 

Factors that Might Make it Difficult to Gain Someone’s Trust 

Gaining someone’s trust is not an easy task, and this can take time to realize.

This is because of certain factors, both on the part of the other person and you, that can make it difficult. 

Here are some of the factors that might make it hard for you to gain someone’s trust:

Past Experiences of Broken/Betrayed Trust 

This is one of the most common reasons why it might prove difficult for you to gain someone’s trust. 

Many times, we’ve had experiences in the past where we trusted people, and the trust got betrayed. 

And this too might be affecting the person or individual who we wish to gain his/her trust. 

When someone already has ugly experiences with trusting people, they find it hard to trust again. 

This is because they do not want to go through that same experience again. 

Having Unrealistic Expectations 

Another reason why it might be hard for you to gain someone’s trust is because of their expectations. 

Some people are unrealistic in the expectations they have of others. 

It is often common for some to predict or expect certain things of others, even without the other party being aware of this. 

That way, you might be “fighting an already lost battle” so to speak, by doing what you deem your best but falling short of the expectations of the other person.

This too can make the process of gaining someone’s trust difficult. 

You Have a Habit or History of Being Dishonest 

This particular reason why it might be hard to gain someone’s trust is down to you.

It could be that you already have a history of dishonesty in the past, and the other party is aware of this. 

Lying or being dishonest ranks as the primary reason why trust is broken and difficult to build. 

Hence, if you already make it a habit to be dishonest or you have a history of this, then you might struggle to gain someone’s trust. 

How To Gain Someone’s Trust – Practical Steps to Take 

It would be unrealistic to expect that people will trust you automatically because of who you are or claim to be. 

Usually, trust is earned and not just given, and the process for winning or gaining someone’s trust can often be a long one. 

However, everything you need to gain someone’s trust is within your means, and the success of this endeavor rests on your shoulders. 

Therefore, here are some practical steps or measures you can take to help you in gaining someone’s trust:

Be Honest and Truthful 

There is no easier way of losing someone’s trust or making the process of gaining it difficult than being dishonest or untruthful. 

When you make it a habit to tell lies, even seemingly “small” lies as some say, you erode or remove people’s trust in you. 

Hence, in your business transactions and even everyday affairs, make it a goal to always be honest and truthful. 

When you build a reputation as someone trustworthy, you can gradually start to gain someone’s trust. 

This is because you’ve shown yourself deserving of it and have earned it.

Freely Admit Your Mistakes 

In gaining someone’s trust, it is good to make yourself vulnerable at times and not try to be perfect. 

When you come off as a perfectionist or someone who can do no wrong, it can be hard for people to trust you.

Another thing you can do that can make it hard for you to gain someone’s trust is always insisting on your rights and not admitting wrongs.

As someone who is not perfect, you do not need to act as though you are. 

Instead, when you do wrong or make mistakes, quickly admit these errors to the other person and take responsibility. 

This can help you in your efforts to gain someone’s trust. 

Match Your Words with Actions 

This is another aspect of being trustworthy, which also helps you to gain the trust of someone. 

Talk they say is cheap, but it is the actions supporting this that are more important.

Especially as a business person, you cannot say something in a bid to market your products and services but offer a different thing when the time comes to deliver. 

If you do this, it shows you are not trustworthy, and it can affect the trust others have in you. 

If you want to gain someone or people’s trust, you need to be true to your words, backing them up with equal action. 

Practice Consistency 

Another step or measure you can take to enable you to gain someone’s trust is being consistent with your methods and applications. 

When you are something today and another thing tomorrow, it can leave people in doubt about your integrity. 

And that will make it hard for you to gain their trust. 

Therefore, you need to be consistent both in the quality of products and services you push out and also in how you manage your business. 

Having years of such consistency under your belt will assure others that you are reliable and they will trust you more. 

Build Your Brand Image

Think about some of the household or popular names in different industries today, such as Coca-Cola, Apple, Google e.t.c.

When these companies or organizations come up with new products and services, how hard can it be to trust them?

It would be easy to trust that whatever product or service they launch would be of the optimum quality. 

Why is this so?

It is this way because they have been able to build a good brand image and identity. 

That can also help you in gaining the trust of others. 

When you build your business by branding it and making sure it has a good image and reputation, this is glaring for all to see. 

Having that brand image and reputation might take a while, but the effort to build it is worth it. 

And when you finally achieve this, it becomes easier for you to gain someone’s trust.

Be Transparent 

Transparency is yet another factor that can help you in gaining someone’s trust. 

Being transparent means that you do not hide things, especially the most important details that your employees and customers need. 

When you are not transparent, it leaves more questions than answers in the minds of those you have business dealing with. 

They might begin to wonder what it is you are hiding, and even create scenarios or situations in their mind. 

These can in turn affect their likelihood of having trust in you. 

By practicing transparency, on the other hand, you are being open with others, and this can help you gain their trust. 

Keep Confidential Matters Confidential

One other thing that can easily make you lose the trust of others in you is when you reveal secrets or confidential matters. 

In your interaction with people and other relationships, there will be times when people will confide in you.

Some pieces of information might be revealed to you in confidence. 

You have the responsibility of keeping such matters confidential and not revealing them to a 3rd party. 

When you practice confidentiality, you show the other person that you are reliable. 

And this can help them to build their trust in you, as you have shown yourself deserving of such trust by your action.

Think Before You Speak

There is a belief among many people that when someone talks too much and talks too fast, they are likely to be dishonest and not trustworthy. 

While this is not always the case, there is already a bias for that. 

Hence, when you are meeting people for the first time, it is beneficial to pick your words carefully and talk slowly.

Also, endeavor to think about your words before you spill them.

When you choose your words carefully and speak slowly, it is easier to gain the trust of others, especially someone you are meeting for the first time.

Final Thoughts  – How To Gain Someone’s Trust

Trust is very hard to gain but quite easy to lose. 

This is to show you just how important people take the matter of trusting another and how they don’t give this out easily. 

For you to gain someone’s trust, you need to prove to them that you are trustworthy or deserve it.

And it is your actions that will determine this. 

Therefore, endeavor to be honest at all times, own up to your mistakes, be transparent and build your business into a brand. 

All these can help you to gain someone’s trust and retain it.