Atrophy is guaranteed without intentional action. Your sales are atrophying every day, your culture is atrophying every day because of two things. Change and time. So you have to keep putting the right medicine in, the right vitamins in, the right healthy things in. To get the right sales you have to put them in consistently. To get the right culture, you have to put trust building things in consistently because time and change are killing every organization every day without it.
How do I increase my NPS, my Net Promoter Score? The Net Promoter Score is just a question of would you refer this product or service to others? There is only one way to increase your NPS, and that is by increasing trust.
You see, it’s not a referral issue, it’s not an engagement issue. You don’t get more referrals with referrals, just like you don’t get more engagement with engagement. You get more engagement with trust, you get more referrals by being more trusted.
In fact, in our last year’s annual study, the 2019 Trust Outlook, we found nine out of 10 Americans said they would not refer the product or service of an organization they don’t trust. Increase trust, increase your referrals, increase your Net Promoter Score.
Here is an example of David speaking to a healthcare organization about how to have more productive meetings.
One of the biggest healthcare organizations in North America. I’m with the top executives, we’re at a private getaway. They’ve said to me ahead of time, David we’ve had these other consultants in, but we’ve never done anything differently. David we need to do something differently, we’re losing HCAP funding, we’re losing patients. We need help doing something.
It is top executives, they’re at round tables like this, it’s just 100 of them, private location. They’ve got the letters behind their name. PhD, SVP, CEO, ADD. Got through a whole half day of Trust Edge work, they understand the eight pillar framework, we’re getting to solving problems.
This table right here, it’s the top. Top of the top. I said what pillar, if you built a little bit more of that you’d build more trust with your team or with customers. We picked one specific audience. I’ll never forget.
The team leader stood up in front of everybody and said, clarity. We need that one. We need to be more clear. I said, how you gonna do it? He sat down. He talked to his brilliant team. When he was ready, in front of everybody, he stood up and said, we’re gonna communicate more. I said, how? He sat down. He talked to his brilliant team. When he was ready, he stood up in front of everybody and said, proudly, we’re gonna hold each other accountable.
After I threw up in my mouth, I said how? He sat down. I know what that means! I’m not gonna do a darn thing I’ll blame everybody else! I said how? Finally they got to a how they’re gonna do something differently today or tomorrow.
How, How, How, How, How?
Stop having meetings where you don’t ask someone how until somebody is gonna do something differently today or tomorrow. You’re wasting our life! How, how, how? And by the way, people will argue with me. Well we can’t do anything about it, that’s a CEO, that’s a chairman, that’s them.
Every time with every group I’ve had around the world, every time, that table can get to somehow, they can do something about by next week they can start to solve that problem. We push people to create a how that they’re gonna do starting today or tomorrow. I don’t trust them unless they do.
People often ask me, “How do you build trust with yourself?” And, you know, it is really hard to build trust in your team, in your organization, in your family, or anywhere else if you don’t trust yourself at all. The only way is to make and keep a commitment.
You hear the idea, love your neighbor as yourself, well, if you don’t love yourself at all, it’s hard to love your neighbor. People sometimes ask me about the weight loss when I lost over 50 pounds in five months, and, I think, one of the many things I did to try to lose that weight was I made a commitment. It wasn’t a bet, just a commitment and the commitment was to my staff.
The commitment was, “If I’m not at my high school weight by May 1st, I’ll give you $2500.” My wife was not excited about this idea but I knew I had to make a commitment. Now, what’s the problem if I wouldn’t have kept that commitment? Well, I would’ve lost trust in myself. So, making and keeping little commitments that you will keep, that’s the step to start trusting yourself more.
When you trust yourself more, you start to build that muscle so that you can build trust in others, in your team, in your organization, build trust in your family, or anywhere else. But in order to built trust with others, you have to start to be able to trust yourself. So, picking some little thing that you can make as a commitment that you will keep will help you start to build more trust with yourself.
How should you build trust in adversity? Watch the video below to see David’s insight on the best way to build trust in adversity.
We learn when we trust people that stay committed even in the face of adversity. You think of anybody that’s left a great and lasting legacy in your life personally, or in history. Mandela, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Jesus or Joan of Arc, and you’ll find somebody who was committed to a cause beyond themselves and they were trusted because of that commitment.
When is your greatest opportunity to build trust the fastest? Right away’s a really great opportunity, it’s number two. When was George W. Bush the most trusted in America? The week after 9/11. Crisis. Things are going to heck?
You got a board meeting, people are throwing chairs, they’re mad, parents are shouting and screaming. You got an incredible opportunity to build trust fast. How you respond as a board right then is your great opportunity.
The only way to build a strong reputation is sameness, consistency, for good or bad. Like I said, late all the time, trust you to be late. Sameness matters. Some of you new come in cardinal. Others have come in recently. You’ve got to help us. You have to help us have the same feel. You’ve got to understand these three H values.
You need to understand our five push forward initiatives right now because we have got to have consistency because we all lose if we don’t have consistency in some way. In companies, we call it a brand, that’s consistency. In people, we call it a reputation. You have a weak reputation if you’re late sometimes and on-time sometimes.
You have a weak brand if I interface with this group over here, the app development group, and they were really great and then I interfaced with the channel group, supply and chain, whatever, and then they were this way. You’ve got to help us have consistency if we want to have strength and growth over the next decade. Consistency matters.
When you give commitment, you will receive it. It is a direct relationship. They work together. You must do the work to see results. Here is David speaking on this topic.
One time had a vice president of sales right before his meeting come up to me and say, “Dave, I’ve read your book “and I love the chapter on commitment. “I think that is so important for our company, “can you just tell my team to be committed to me?”
No, you have to be committed to them first, commitment breeds commitment. Sometimes people ask me, “How do you rebuild trust? “How do you rebuild it?” We’ve all made mistakes. Let me tell you what’s not, it’s not the apology.
If a president, a CEO from a company in the Netherlands came up to me, said, we were talking, we knew each other for, been over here about a month. I said, “What do you notice different in America?” He said, “You wanna know the truth David?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “In America, you’ve got a bunch “of lying apologizers. “They all say they’re sorry and they don’t mean it. “‘I’m sorry I’m late.’ “No you’re not, you’re late every time. “‘Sorry I didn’t get that done.’ “No you never get that done.”
Doesn’t mean you don’t need to start with a sincere apology, but whether you’re a big business or an individual, the only way to rebuild trust is to make and keep a commitment, that starts with personal commitments.
Consistency. is why we trust McDonald’s. Even if we don’t like them. I’ve had the same exact burger on six continents. This pillar is why we cannot stand moody people, right?
What are you gonna be like today? Happy, sad, mad, stressing me out! I would rather have an angry curmudgeon every single day than a moody person. Wouldn’t you? I can manage that consistency. I can’t manage this. Sameness, in our office we say it’s the little things done consistently that make the biggest difference and that’s true of your store every single day. Little things done consistently.
If I’m overweight it’s ’cause I’ve had too many lattes over years, not ’cause I ate too much this morning for breakfast. If I’m a good husband it’s ’cause I’ve loved and honored my wife over years, not ’cause I gave her a diamond ring and dozen roses one time, not that that wouldn’t help.
If I’m a good leader I’m consistently sharing the vision, consistently appreciating my team, consistently building this store in the freshest possible way, because consistency is trusted. You’re trusted for whatever you do consistently. The only way to build a reputation is consistency, the only way to build a brand is consistency.
When I walk into that store and that greeter is great, and then I talk to the next person, they don’t know where anything is, and then I talk to the next one and it’s clean over here, and then the magazine is terrible, and then there’s, if you have up and down you have no brand. Consistency is trusted. They wanna have the same experience every single time.
Speaking on commitment. But I one time had a vice president of sales right before his meeting come up to me and say, “Dave, I’ve read your book “and I love the chapter on commitment. “I think that is so important for our company, “can you just tell my team to be committed to me?” No, you gotta be committed to them first, commitment breeds commitment. Sometimes people ask me, “How do you rebuild trust? “How do you rebuild it?”
We’ve all made mistakes. Let me tell you what’s not, it’s not the apology. And if a president, a CEO from a company in the Netherlands came up to me, said, we were talking, we knew each other for, been over here about a month. I said, “What do you notice different in America?” He said, “You wanna know the truth David?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “In America, you’ve got a bunch “of lying apologizers. “They all say they’re sorry and they don’t mean it. “‘I’m sorry I’m late.’ “No you’re not, you’re late every time. “‘Sorry I didn’t get that done.’ “No you never get that done.” Doesn’t mean you don’t need to start with a sincere apology, but whether you’re a big business or an individual, the only way to rebuild trust is to make and keep a commitment, that starts with personal commitments.
