Since our initial launch of RQ for Salesforce at Dreamforce 2012 a couple of weeks ago, I have been thinking a lot about trust.  MarcBenioff said (I’m paraphrasing) that at the end of the day, we are all working to build trust with our customers, partners, and the marketplace and he’s right.  But what is trust and why is it critical to establishing quality relationships that drive measurable results?

In my interpretation of business (and life), trust is a judgment that others make about how you are likely to act with regard to what they care about over the course of your relationship (in the future).  It’s important to highlight that as trustworthy as we might try or mean to be, trust is about what other people think we will do (based on our historical actions and the results they have produced), not what we say we will do.

At RCG, we help our clients begin to build trust through what we call “The Principle of Worthy Intent”, which is a promise professionals make to keep the concerns of other people at the core of their business relationship.  However we language that promise though, it is empty and unlikely to produce real and lasting trust without our first demonstrating our credibility (competence), integrity, and authenticity with regard to taking care of the situations that our clients face every day.

When I think about the future of the RQ for Salesforce product line, I am constantly looking for ways to create practical tools that will help our clients to establish early and lasting trust in every business relationship they encounter.  I’d love to hear what others think or any suggestions you may have about how I can help you build stronger and more lasting trust in your relationships.

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