Image via Wikipedia Building new business relationships that you can trust is getting harder than ever. So much hype exists in the noise of business building, that "trust me I can do it" becomes the key differentiator in many cases. With this reality, your past client references are critical, but in some cases these are not even enough if you do not have a referral from some business your prospect knows deeply. Many times I have come across the words "Sure you have done that for Coke but have you done it for Ted down the street?". Once again proving the point that if your story is not relevant to your prospect then you are nowhere.
With the palpable desire out there for the building of a trust bridge that is relevant to both parties, one solution becomes starting the relationship with baby steps. In 2000 I was living in Singapore and leading McCann Erickson's pitch for Caltex (Chevron's brand in Asia Pacific and Africa). To build trust and prove our relevance to Caltex, we were tasked do produce a TV spot that would bring to life the campaign we had wowed them with in the initial pitch process. In other words they wanted to give us their business in all of Asia Pacific and Africa but they were not quite sure our walk matched our talk. So they agreed to pay all out of pocket costs to produce the spot and we agreed to commit our time to bring it to life. In the end we went up the road to Malaysia to shoot a rally car spot that highlighted Caltex's Havoline motor oil. The spot turned out great (see below and look for me being sprayed with mud!). More importantly, Caltex learned how we worked, and we built our relevance to them every day we were in that Malaysian jungle. Within weeks the awarding of the business to McCann Erickson was formalised.
So as you approach building your business in 2011, try taking some baby steps with your prospects. Prove your relevance by suggesting a trial project that is fair to both sides and go out there and build some trust.
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