Establishing credibility has always been crucial in business. Establishing credibility develops trust, which opens the door to building relationships with potential customers and clients. The best reputation management leaders often incorporate credibility into their training programs. They strive to teach their team members how to build credibility faster to keep prospective customers and clients moving through the pipeline and delight existing customers and clients.

You should lay the groundwork to quickly establish credibility should happen long before your team members make first contact with a potential customer or client.

You must train your team members to stay current on what is happening in the world. It is a good idea to encourage your team members to keep up with local and global news. This helps establish credibility because it shows that your team members know how to add value, solve problems, and fit in as a potential solution. Also, monitoring the news is a common habit of high performers. There is evidence that team members who are engaged with current events outperform those who do not.

Encourage your team members to share important information quickly. Each member of your team has information that is potentially relevant and helpful to another person. An informed team member does not just know about industry developments—they also have information that some customers or clients may consider to be insider intelligence. If your team members often work within the same vertical, they likely pick up on key trends as they meet with their accounts. Be sure to discuss this information in team meetings. Gaining useful pieces of information can help your team build credibility faster.

When teaching team members to interact with clients or potential clients, you must emphasize honesty. Sometimes, team members over-promise to close a deal or up sale. They may make promises they cannot keep or offer a discount only to load the final contract with add-on fees to get to the figure they need. These tactics are dishonest and a sure way to lose credibility. Instead, always teach your team members to follow up on their promises and avoid exaggerating what they can do for the customer or client.

Make sure your team members are not trash talking. Are you familiar with the saying: If you cannot say anything nice, do not say anything at all? Leaders need to remind their team members of this adage. While you may have plenty of negative things to say about competing businesses, take the high road. Your team will build credibility faster by talking about the best features of their solution—and then delivering on what they say.

Your team must avoid bragging. Your team members may feel comfortable touting surprising statistics about the solutions they offer. They may feel confident that what they say will inspire potential customers and clients to sign on the spot. However, it is better to slowly reveal your solution rather than going into any conversation overly confident. This is because your customers and client’s top priority is finding the best solution for them at the best price. They likely already know your market position, and bragging could turn them off.

When potential customers can get all the information they need with a quick internet search, it becomes even more critical for your team to be establishing credibility early on. By following the pointers above, you can help your sales reps position themselves as knowledgeable, indispensable assets. And this will help you thrive.