High trust sales professionals have a different purpose than their counterparts. There is something bigger than the sale that motivates them to perform their best, and it's why every audience who takes in their performance is compelled to follow through. They are in the sales business for something more than the commissions they earn or accolades they receive. For high trust sales professionals it's all about people. In over 2,500 field calls and more than 350 interviews with high performing salespeople, I've noticed that the one thing that separates them from the lion's share of other salespeople is a burning desire to create an incredible service experience for every customer.

As you can imagine, I study service everywhere I go. I have seen the proverbial "good, bad, and downright ugly." I've seen sales professionals that genuinely care and genuinely add value. And I've seen salespeople who couldn't care less. And when you're on the other side of the transaction, the difference is quite evident.
The bottom line is that it costs more to fall short of customers' expectations than to maintain relationships with them. In fact, it usually costs more to lose a customer than it did to gain him in the first place because according to our research most unhappy customers tell an average of 10 people about their experience. That's an average of 11potential customers lost as a result of bad service. Too much of that and you could ruin your sales business and quite possibly your career. And the only way to avoid that happening is through a commitment to consistent value-adding service.

One of our students, Steven Marshall, reported an adjusted gross income on his 1992 tax returns of roughly $10,000-then jumped to an income of $1.6 million just seven years later. And he did it by continually creating high trust with one customer at a time then following a system to consistently give every client brilliant, value-added service experiences. You see, serving your clients isn't another step in the high trust selling process, it's the embodiment of the high trust selling process-the culmination of a high trust performance deserving of an encore.

High trust selling boils down to this: If you are a trustworthy salesperson, you can build a consummate sales business by adding significant value to your customers through world-class service.

The following are five ordinary steps to providing extraordinary service to your clients until the day you retire. Make these a part of your sales business creed and the umbrella to protect and sustain your high trust enterprise.

Step #1: Decide how good you will be at customer service. I'm serious. You must set your standards and know your expectations of yourself, because customer service is a philosophy, not a department. You are responsible for how your client is treated and no one else-not another department in your company, not the post office, not Fed Ex, and not Xerox. You get the point. Service is the heart of high trust selling and it must fill your veins. Creating a great service culture and experience always starts with a vision. A vision is foresight with insight based on hindsight. Once you articulate your vision and put it in writing, your approach to selling will take on a whole new life and you will create a service culture that endears customers to you for good.

Step #2: Publish Your Core Values and Service Standards. Make yourself accountable to your customers. Tell them what you are committed to doing up front. You will be compelled to perform at the highest levels if your customer-service values and standards are in writing, and shared with your customers. Once you have these values and standards published, guarantee the delivery of them. This is beyond your product guarantees. This is about your level of service. As much as possible, take the risk out of doing business with you.

Step #3: Take only the business you can handle. If you can't serve clients the way they should be served, don't take their business. Make sure you know that you can deliver the service you promise before you generate a ton of business. Think of it this way: You should never open your doors unless you are primed to deliver over-the-top service to every customer who walks through them.

Step #4: Survey your customers before, during, and after the sale. If you publish your core values and service standards then you will always have a purpose for surveying your customers. One mistake sales professionals make-besides not surveying their customers at all-is only surveying after the transaction is complete and the sale is final. That's too late. If customers are not happy at any point, and you go through with the transaction, you will have branded the negative experience on their minds. It's downhill from there. It doesn't matter if the sale is large, like a house, or small, like a nice dinner-the service experience can make or break high trust.

Step #5: Know your impression points. This one's easy. Sit down for the next thirty minutes and make a list of the five to ten points in the sales process that the majority of your customers find most important. These will become the places in the selling process where you give your customers status updates to keep them very informed. For example, when the order has been submitted, let your customer know. When the order is processed, let your customer know. When the order is shipped, let your customer know. Then automate this system and track these key points. What this does-particularly when you tell your customers up front that you will do this-is help eliminate anxiety and doubt.

In the end, if you cannot offer a customer the best-service possible then you might as well let them go to your competitor who will. That's how important service is-not only in establishing your own reputation but also in eliminating the option that your customers will seek out the services of a competitor. You see, done correctly, consistent, value-added service will not only build trust with customers, it will create a protective covering over your business-like an umbrella in a rainstorm. And that's protection you need to succeed in sales.

Jean Dees began her second stint as a sales professional in 1992, at the age of fifty-four. Initially, Jean went about things the way most ambitious, hardworking salespeople do-she put in a lot of hours trying to maximize the few resources she had at her discretion to build her new business. She would work fifty-plus hours each week marketing her business, calling on prospects, and attempting to build relationships with customers, all according to the limited resources her employer offered. And while she met with some success, it wasn't the kind she hoped for. Eventually, she sensed there was a better way to achieve her goals. She sensed that she needed to think outside the confines of her current resources. Later that same year, Jean-on her own dollar-attended my Sales Mastery seminar in Palm Springs, California. There she learned that the business would come when she learned to become a better investor.

Jean had already taken one step in the right direction by attending the seminar. That was her first wise investment. Her next investment was immediately hiring a coach to help her develop an effective business plan that was in tune with her life plan. Together with her coach she determined what additional investments were necessary to reap the business and life she desired. Coaching, they determined, would be a lifetime investment. So would attending personal- and professional-growth seminars. Together with some personal monetary investments and a few initial time investments, Jean got on the right track, and before long she began to reap the rewards.

Last year, at the age of sixty-three, Jean received my company's "Lifetime Mastery Achievement Award," which is given to the one sales professional who consistently exemplifies excellence, top-notch productivity, and value-added service to her customers. But as Jean would tell you, that's not nearly the greatest return on her investments-her legacy is. Today, she is the owner of the company she once worked for. Her son is the executive vice president, her daughter is a top salesperson, and her granddaughter is an occasional intern for the company, spending time with her grandmother while learning the disciplines that have allowed her to leave a lasting sales legacy for her customers, and for her family.

If you're like most people, by now you may have made and broken a few resolutions since New Year's Day. And if you did, the resolutions you broke were probably based on quitting an old habit or gaining a new discipline. But as you've probably noticed, those resolutions don't seem to stick, do they? And there's a good reason for it. You see, you can't change your lifestyle until you first change your values.

Historically, most resolutions tend to be flippant wishes that fail to consider an individual's values. But once you begin basing resolutions on a change in your values, you will begin to swim against the riptide of failed promises that seem to plague the majority of people this time every year. The fact is that you cannot-for a sustained period of time-live outside of the realm of your core values in life. And whether you like it or not, your core values are evident by that in which you invest the most time.

Now here's the tough question: If you wrote down your top five values in life, would they coincide with the top five things you spend time on each day?

Put it this way: If someone followed you around all day on a typical weekday, what would that person discover are your values? Well, there's no doubt you probably spend around 8 hours at work, right? That's one-third of your day; so clearly the observer would say that work is one of your top values. What about before work? How do you spend your time then? Do you exercise and eat a healthy meal? Or do you cram a donut in your mouth as you run out the door (but still resolve to be in better shape)? Do you spend quality time with your family before heading off to work? Or do you wave hi and bye in the same fluid motion (but still resolve to be a better father, mother, or spouse)? What would your observer say is another of your values based on how you start your day? Is it something on the top of your list? And what about after 5:00 PM? Does the time you spend during the last third of the day reflect the values you want it to?

Before the end of this first month of the new year, take a few minutes to write down the five things you value most in life. At the top of this list, write "Ideal Values." Then be your own observer for at least 2 consecutive days by recording where you spend your time each day. Be honest. This exercise won't amount to anything if you aren't truthful. Then at the end of the second day, determine (based on the amount of hours you spend on them) what five things are your actual top values. At the top of this list, write "Actual Values." Now compare lists. Is your top Actual Value the same as your top Ideal Value? Are the values the same on both lists? If they're not, or if they're out of order, then you have a clear blueprint for what needs to happen if you are to make some resolutions that stick. (Remember, it's the amount of time you invest that most accurately indicates what you value). Begin with a new resolution tactic this year and come back to it every December-and you'll be done with unrealistic resolutions once and for all.