It was a regular busy morning in our Tokyo office . The secretary said there was a customer waiting to see me. I was little surprised as I had no appointment with a customer at that time. In Japan it is rare that someone coming to see you without an appointment. I thought it must be something important. With all kinds of guess work I went to the meeting room. What a surprise! It was the senior Vice President of a global giant in Electronics, one of our most important customers. He was with his General Manager, a kind lady always helpful to us. I could sense the seriousness in spite of the customary smile on their faces. After exchange of greetings the VP gave me a gift and apologized. I could not understand the situation. Later I came to know that whenever some damage is done to you, the Japanese express their regret by offering you a gift. He said,"Unfortunately the project has to be stopped in middle due to some problems on our side. Your team has done an excellent job. We are very thankful to you and your team for this. We are sure to come back with some solution later and engage your team again.”It was difficult to digest this information as this was a major project involving several hundred engineers. But my respect to the customer for his courteous behavior dominated my own thoughts about lost revenue. One year later the same customer called me and surprised me by giving a huge project much bigger in size. “Why he did this?”, I asked my colleagues. They all said in chorus,"trust”. Yes, trust is the magic word in business. This word can do wonders. There were also other customers who helped us even when we goofed up at some points due to our ignorance. They know we can be trusted and we will never let them down. Whether it is trade, marketing, buying or selling, with trust even blunders are excused. There is no business running smooth and profitable all the time. There are ups and down. The seller, buyer and service provider all must trust each other in business. All other qualities put together cannot make you successful if you are not trusted.
You can never pretend to be trust worthy. It is self evident. However we can see some pointers here on how trust is built based on experience.
· Be honest first to yourself and then to others. Do not try to defend your side when there is a fault. Telling the fact is invariably better than bending the truth to justify your act.
· Never be late to a meeting. Nobody can trust a person who cannot keep his own commitment to time. You may give thousand reasons for being late. But trust and so your business is already lost.
· Empathize with your partner. Even great companies have difficult times. Size does not matter. Elephants slip. Be with your partner in difficult times. In better times, he will come to you.
· In business, sweet words don’t always mean business. Be firm on your principles, if you believe it will help your partner. Flexibility does not mean accepting everything.
· Think of the benefit of your customer, you will in turn be trusted and benefitted.
· Be consistent. Even a broken clock can show right timing twice a day. All your figures should be consistent and supported by facts. Consistent growth is better than great show and down fall.
· Build a relationship sincerely and steadily. Tough start, growing sweeter and stronger is always better than sweet start and bitter end.
· While in discussion with your customer, explain your shortcomings as well as your strengths. Remember the customer has heard the statement, “I am the best” from all prospects before you met him. Openness leads to trust.
· Say always “I can do only this and only I can do this.” Nobody will trust you when you try to do everything.
· Do not just say all bad things about your competitor. Be honest in appreciating the good points as well. Explain how you are unique and why you are even better.
New business models, management techniques, quality improvements, information updates are all in the superstructure. They all need a foundation called trust. Everything else can change in business but not trust. Where trust is- there is business.
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