6 Methods For Building Trust With Clients

Table of Contents:

• How to Build Trust With A Client
• Ask What You Can Help With
• Listen Early and Often
• Be Remarkably Reliable
• Embrace Your Unique Value
• Foster Mutual Accountability
• Create a Comfortable Environment
• Frequently Asked Questions About Building Trust With Clients

The channels through which business is done have changed, but what people are looking for hasn’t. All business activities can be reduced to how two or more parties benefit from an interaction. This may include building trust with clients, closing a sale, getting a new tool, or reducing expenses.

That’s why trust is foundational to business interactions. As a real estate agent, developing rapport with clients should be at the top of your priority list. Trust takes time to foster and can be shattered with just one wrong move, which is why it’s never too early to engender it. 

Creating mutually satisfactory client relationships is simple and effective when you have the right relationship selling techniques. Continue reading to discover six methods for building trust with clients. 

How to Build Trust With A Client

When building trust with clients and establishing rapport, it’s easy to overcomplicate things. Offering an amazing deal, reducing listing prices, and showing endless testimonials are used by dozens of real estate professionals. 

While aiming for lower costs isn’t always a bad idea, it’s not the best place to start. People are inundated with offers all day, so you need to know how to market yourself as a realtor differently. 

By positioning yourself in an authentic, trustworthy light, you’ll put clients at ease and make your conversations effortless. Here’s how to do it. 

Ask What You Can Help With

Surprisingly, one of the best methods for building trust with clients is simply asking how you can help. The old-school sales approach of asking for the deal just doesn’t work anymore.

People greatly prefer talking to someone who is a resource rather than a salesperson. That’s why it helps to know which of the types of sales persons you are so you can use your strengths.

Your prospects understand that sales is what drives your profession, but the key is making it not feel like sales. Buyers want to feel like they’re in control of the buying process, and modern real estate marketing ideas can help you get there. 

Simply ask your prospect open-ended questions to build rapport and find out what they want. As they’re talking, you’ll discover what’s important to them, and how quickly they’re looking to move. There’s no sense in trying to move faster than your buyer is ready to, which only makes you look desperate.

Instead, take the information they share and pivot your helpfulness to match. If they say they’re just casually looking, ask them if you can follow up in a few months. This creates healthy accountability where they need to be as transparent about their input as you are.

Listen Early and Often

When it comes to relationship selling, you can never listen too much. It’s one of the ABCs of relationship selling because it puts your client’s needs front and center. It communicates that they are a priority to you, which people always respond well to. 

Listening early and often takes practice, because it’s too easy to just use traditional sales scripts. By stepping outside of this and into the mind of your customer, you’re in a better position. 

First and foremost, home buyers are looking for someone who understands their needs. Researching the housing market forecast and the best time to sell a house is a mentally arduous process that may take months. For many people, it’s also a process that brings up several questions. 

By being the real estate professional who listens to all of their concerns, you’ll naturally seem knowledgeable and friendly. As your buyers discover that you love building trust with clients, this fosters an authentic relationship. This allows you to share your expertise with people who value your work, which leads to frictionless sales. 

Be Remarkably Reliable

In a world of digital communication, ghosting, and the almighty dollar, character traits like reliability have all but vanished. This trait is even more valuable in an industry like real estate, where reputation and personal connections are everything. 

Put simply, reliability is doing what you say you’ll do and being where you say you’ll be. If you’re running late, let your client know. If you need to cancel or reschedule a meeting, do it right away. If you can’t fulfill a particular request, be upfront about it. 

It’s better to be honest about difficulties than try to appear perfect and end up letting a client down. The type of clients you want to attract are those who expect consistency and transparency.

If you’re under the impression that you can never say no, you’re going to be double booked and losing sales faster than you can imagine. Believe it or not, it will also be harder to build rapport.

One of the easiest ways to become more reliable is to put everything on your calendar. Even if it’s a 15 minute phone call over lunch, write it down. When it’s scheduled, you’re committed, and your clients will notice how committed you are, too.

As building trust with clients leads to greater reliability, your buyers will want to recommend you to everyone they know. This is why a smaller number of strong leads is good for business, because it keeps your quality high.

What agent or broker wouldn’t want that kind of leads pipeline? After all, it means you don’t have to put as much emphasis on learning how to generate real estate leads.

Embrace Your Unique Value

One of the biggest pitfalls young professionals fall into is trying to serve everyone. Starting a business requires significant investments of time and capital, which pushes many to try to get any leads they can. 

Though you do need clients to have cash flow, trying to serve all kinds of buyers is a mistake. Some people are first-time buyers or sellers and need someone to guide them through every step, like how to get a home appraisal. Others have some experience with real estate, are looking for their forever home, or have a large budget. 

The point here is that different buyers have different needs, so you shouldn’t have the same approach across the board. As you develop the real estate niche you’re skilled in, you can offer specific value and thereby build rapport with your clients. 

One of the ways you can do this is to master content marketing. Over time you become an expert in your niche, which adds credibility to your agency. It also makes it easier for buyers to find you in a sea of agents and brokers–many of whom don’t clarify what they specialize in. 

Foster Mutual Accountability 

It may go against what you’ve been taught before, but requiring accountability from clients is good for both of you. So, what does it mean to hold clients accountable, and how can you do it while still building trust with clients? 

One example is having an established follow-up process for no-shows. Instead of chasing down a prospect in real life or online, send them an email with one of the best subject lines and email templates for real estate agents. This is an effective way to keep the conversation going without being creepy or needy.

If you’ve also wondered, “When is the best time to send an email?” Check out our blog post on that topic for actionable answers.

If they had a legitimate reason for not being able to show up, they will reschedule. If not, you’re not wasting precious time on someone who didn’t take you seriously. Tire kickers exist in every industry and by not groveling for their attention, you prove that you’re someone of value. 

Another way to create accountability is to ask your clients to always be honest with you. This sets two healthy precedents in communication. One, it shows them you aren’t afraid of the truth and can accept criticism when necessary.

Two, it’s likely to weed out anyone who is using you. By asking for the truth from day one, dishonest prospects will think twice before leading you on. Your genuine prospects (which will be most of them) will know you truly care, which makes it easier to work together. 

Create a Comfortable Environment 

We’re all human, which means we prefer to do business with those we know, like, and trust. Each of these feelings foster familiarity, which is a key human need–particularly when doing business.

If you met someone out of the blue and they started talking to you to sell you something, what are the chances you’d listen? On the contrary, what if someone you already knew asked how they can help you find what you’re looking for? 

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know the answers here. Just about anyone would prefer talking to the person they already know. There’s a lot of evolutionary science behind this, but humans see those they know as trustworthy and those they don’t know as not yet trustworthy. 

Of course, you can’t know everyone; even business relationships have to start somewhere. That’s why it’s essential to get to know someone first.

People are immediately turned off by someone who is trying to sell them. If you start by building trust with clients and later pivot to how your good or service helps, the conversation will feel far more natural. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Building Trust With Clients

Unlike coupons and video game cheat codes, there’s no way to “hack” trust. It’s one of the most important aspects of human relationships and drives massive ROI for those who prioritize it. 

If you’re hung up on how to authentically build trust with customers, we have you covered. Check out the most frequently asked questions about building trust with clients here:

How Do You Build Trust With Your Client?

Trust is multi-faceted, but it’s created through integrity, fostering peace of mind, and putting others’ needs first. First, you can’t become trustworthy if you aren’t doing what’s right. This includes portraying yourself accurately, placing relationships over profit, and putting effort into your business.

Second, your clients need good reasons to believe in you. Few people work with a professional who doesn’t have some track record of getting results. You can do this by sharing buyer reviews and asking for testimonials. Whenever someone is curious about your past wins, you’ll have strong sources to present. 

Third, putting yourself in another’s shoes is the most powerful way to grow trust. Confidence is created when a need is expressed and then met between two people. Treat each buyer as an individual–which they are–and you’ll be surprised at the positive results. 

What Are Three Ways You Can Build Trust With Customers?

Three ways to build trust with customers quickly and effectively are telling the truth, listening to them, and understanding what they’re looking for. Let’s take a closer look at each one. 

Telling the truth sounds simple enough, but you’d be shocked by how few people do it. It’s tempting to lie about what you’ve already accomplished to look better to prospective clients, but it’s never worth it. Transparency is necessary because it shows others you’re confident in the results you can provide. 

Listening is the golden rule of relationship-based careers. Creating space for your client to share concerns and desires gives you power in the conversation, because you can answer with precision. If you don’t take time to listen, it’s like assuming you know what your client wants and needs. Nothing is a bigger turnoff than a know-it-all. 

Taking time to understand what prospects are looking for builds trust like gangbusters. This is also a much-needed skill in real estate, where preferences vary widely between buyers. Set up time early in your interactions with prospects to understand their goals. The more information you gather, the better position you’ll be in to recommend a listing.

How Do You Build Relationships With Clients?

Building relationships with clients takes time and there’s no “shortcut.” However, there are three strategies that will put you on the right path: being real with prospects, following up well, and asking for referrals. 

The first step to phenomenal business results is keeping it real. Being real about what you offer and for how much creates room for clients to trust you. It shows you have nothing to hide and that you’ll work to meet or exceed expectations. 

Just like any other sales profession, real estate relies on well-timed follow-ups. This doesn’t mean following up with your prospect every day, or continuing to contact them if they’ve opted out. It means using smart email marketing tips, like an automated follow-up after holding an open house. Boost your email efforts even higher with our ultimate guide to email marketing.

Asking for referrals is another must-have for every agent’s arsenal. In fact, you should learn the fastest way to get more referrals so you have a full pipeline more often than not.

When you close a deal masterfully, that client will love what you accomplished for them. Take advantage of that situation (ethically) by asking them to refer interested friends and family to you.

That’s all there is to a referral. It’s a winning scenario for all parties and builds stronger relationships with ease. 

In Real Estate, It’s Trust or Bust

Though it takes time (and the occasional mistake), fostering trust with clients is the smartest move in real estate. It positions you as friendly yet authentic, and approachable yet knowledgeable. 

Remember that creating a trusting environment is not about pumping yourself up, it’s about centering your clients’ needs. Walking a mile in another’s shoes is an act of genuine interest and humility.

When done, clients will have all the more respect for you. It will also lead to clearer conversations and a higher close rate.