Building Trust in Subprime Sales

Most buyers don’t trust you. Prove them wrong. The odds are stacked against loan officers. People hear “mortgage” and think: hidden fees, slick talk, maybe a trap. Trust is at rock bottom. Buyers want proof, not promises. How do you get through? By refusing to be forgettable. By doing what others won’t. Here’s what stands out in a world full of doubt: 1. Personalized video messages—no canned scripts. Show your face, say their name, share a real story. Make it memorable. 2. Share a client’s journey, warts and all. people need to see not every deal is smooth. But honesty beats perfection every time. 3. Open up the black box. No surprises. No “gotchas.” Walk buyers through every fee and step. 4. Host a Q&A—live, unfiltered. Let them ask the tough stuff. Answer with facts, not fluff. 5. Keep checking in, months before and after close. Not to sell, but to support when there’s nothing to gain. 6. Admit mistakes if you make them. Fix it, fast. Trust grows when you own your mess. Money talks. But trust shouts. Most buyers want to believe there’s a loan officer out there who actually listens, explains, and delivers. But how will they find such a person? Hope is not a strategy. You must be visible before you are liked, known, and trusted. Prove that buyers can trust you. Be consistent and persistent. If you’re a buyer—what would make you trust a loan officer? If you’re an LO—how are you building trust today?

Buyers don’t buy from the best pitch. They buy from the rep they trust the most. The Trust Gap is real. 88% of buyers purchase only when they see the seller as a trusted advisor. Yet just 32% consider sales a trustworthy profession. What’s creating this gap? - Risk-aversion: Buyers stick with the “safe” vendor they used last year. - Digital self-service: They ghost after a free trial instead of engaging. - Distrust in vendor content: “Your ROI deck feels like marketing buzzwords.” - Transparency doubts: Pricing pushback, security checklist stonewalls. - Short-term sales behaviors: End-of-quarter discounts erode credibility. Here’s the good news: reps can close this gap. And it starts with confidence — the kind that comes from preparation, practice, and showing up with insight, not interrogation. That means: - Clarifying the outcome of every call. - Doing your research so you show up with perspective. - Leading with curiosity and layered questions. - Using peer stories and metrics to transfer belief without hype. - Committing to the next step with mutual clarity. A rep I work with recently told me: “I’m asking all the questions, but the prospect isn’t giving meaningful answers… so I just gave the basic demo and hoped something would catch their attention.” I’m sure you can guess how that opportunity ended. Without insight, without preparation, the conversation felt transactional. The buyer stayed guarded. Trust never built. Build trust by being a professional. Understand your buyer, their company, their goals, and their challenges. Deliver insights through relevant stories drawn from your research and preparation. You don’t have to be right in your perspective — you just need A Perspective. When you share it, buyers will either align with it or push against it. Either way, you go deeper. You earn a real conversation instead of an interrogation. Trust is built in the quality of your conversation, not the quantity of your questions. Show up prepared. Lead with insight. Make the buyer the hero of their story. How do you create trust with your buyer?

You're probably losing deals because your prospects don't trust you Here's one surprising method to increase trust: Tell the customer what you CAN'T do for them ❌ A lot of mediocre salespeople promise customers the world When a customer says "I need X" or "Can you do Y?", these sellers give a blind yes when their product or service isn't really a fit for the use case These customers either get cold feet because they can't rely on the information Or they buy the product, quickly realise it's not a fit, and churn (every CSM's dream 💀) In a buying world where this sort of overpromising exists, what's refreshing for customers is when you're candid about your limitations Some examples: "We wouldn't be the right fit for the more senior AE roles; our program specialises in junior SDR roles" "Our solution isn't well built for commission-only roles; here's how I'd think about sourcing for those roles" "Our reps wouldn't be looking for contract/part-time roles; here's a provider I recommend you speak to" In doing so, prospects trust you more on the smaller set of things you say you CAN do ✅ And if they're not a fit for those, tell the prospect where to go instead if they need a different solution It builds a good relationship for when they may need your product/service, be at it at their current or future employer How else do you break the pattern of 'salesy' communication to build trust with prospects?

We just closed a high 6-figure deal last month. 🔥 Here’s what really made the difference — and why it had less to do with features or flashy demos. In our most recent win, it wasn’t product-led growth. It was strategy-led trust. Here are the key lessons I’m taking away: 🔍 Discovery is everything. The moment we built genuine rapport with the CFO, the conversation changed. We weren’t chasing pain points — we were surfacing them together. From organizational blockers to his personal stakes in the project, that clarity guided every move. 🧩 Deal strategy > sales tactics. We spent more time in internal whiteboard sessions than on Zoom calls. We reverse-engineered what a successful outcome would look like, then worked backward into a credible plan. It wasn’t just a pitch — it was a roadmap the CFO could believe in. 🧠 Internal selling matters more than you think. The real objections came from our own team. Can we do this? Do we have the bandwidth? Is this scope too ambitious? Once we got buy-in internally, everything else followed. 🚶♂️Crawl → Walk → Run. We didn’t try to boil the ocean. The final plan looked nothing like the first — and that’s okay. What mattered was delivering quick wins, then scaling. Credibility compounds. 📞 Relationships aren’t built in group calls. We built trust individually — with various stakeholders (Finance, IT, Legal etc) through separate conversations, each tailored and intentional. Different perspectives. Aligned vision. 💡We sold the project, not the platform. No feature dumps. No SKU spreadsheets. We sold an outcome, and that made price negotiation a value alignment exercise, not a discount dance. There’s a lot of noise out there. But deals like this remind me: → Strategy wins. → Trust delivers. → And good discovery is where it all begins. Let’s keep playing the long game. Goal for Q3: first $500k deal.

I increased my win rate by 15% the moment I started telling buyers: “Don’t buy from me.” Here’s what changed in my process:  1. Tell them when your solution isn’t a fit. Say: “Here’s where this won’t work for you.”  It makes the rest of your pitch believable.  2. Put their interest before your quota. At the end of calls, ask: “Does this still feel worth pursuing for you?”  3. Be radically transparent about gaps, pricing, and process. Share the bad news early - it builds more trust than hiding it.  4. Make your word mean something (even if it costs you the deal). If you commit to Friday, send the update by Thursday afternoon. Over-deliver by default.  5. Give them full visibility into the deal I use @Aligned so they always have one place to see resources, next steps, and progress Bonus: I see hidden analytics like who’s viewing what, how long they stay, when champions re-enter, and even new stakeholders joining. Now, instead of chasing signatures, I earn trust. And trust brings repeat business - and referrals. Short-term sellers win deals. Trusted advisors win careers. Follow me @Jonathan Molina for more daily sales tips. PS: If you want to try Aligned for free:  https://lnkd.in/eX7s3c_8 

Always be closing? That's how you LOSE deals. Sounds strange, right? But after I looked at over 1,000 outbound sales calls, I saw the same painful pattern: Sales reps who push to close on call #1... Got ghosted. Looked desperate. Blew up trust before it started. So, majority of the prospects walked away feeling like "you're just another pushy salesperson..." Good news? There is a strategy that I see consistently working with outbound generated leads. I call it the "Trust Ladder." This approach we recommend to all of our customers and also use internally at Leadhunt since ages. I put together a complete guide breaking down the full Trust Ladder framework with examples and implementation steps: https://lnkd.in/dGkeDsii Here are the steps: Meeting 1: Problem identification (not solution pitching) Meeting 2: Solution presentation + stakeholder mapping Meeting 3: Proposal + objection handling Meeting 4: Contract negotiation Have you noticed what's missing? Pressure. Rush. "Let's close today!" nonsense. You build trust instead of tension. You guide the deal instead of forcing it. Because funny enough, when you slow down, you actually speed up your sales process. This works again and again because it mirrors how buyers actually make decisions: 1️⃣ Process the solution against their current pain 2️⃣ Socialise the idea internally 3️⃣ Build consensus with stakeholders 4️⃣ Understand implementation impact TL;DR: Your biggest wins will come when you trade short-term urgency for long-term predictability. No tricks. No pushy tactics. Just strategic steps that deliver clear value. P.S. Here's the full Trust Ladder methodology with the complete framework and step-by-step implementation: https://lnkd.in/dGkeDsii

Up to 60% of qualified pipeline dies to no decision. Most AEs blame the economy, the process, the product. The real reason is simpler: they built no trust with their buyers. Here's a framework I use to quickly build trust with my buyers on the first meeting. Use this on your next call. - Open with a Point of View, not a question. "Companies/People in your role like yours are usually trying to X but held back by Y. Which of those is most relevant right now?" You show you understand their world before asking them to open up. This helps build credibility. - Expose the one gap that's blocking everything. Not three problems. One linchpin. "Where does the current process break down?" No gap identified, no use case to tie your solution to. - Quantify the cost of doing nothing. "What does it cost the business when this doesn't get solved?" In the first meeting you don't need hard #s but you need to ask this to get the dialogue started. This lays the ground work to build the business case later. - Make it personal in a 1:1 setting. "You mind if I ask you a personal question...If this keeps going the way it is, how does that affect you?" People buy to protect themselves as much as their company. Find out what's personally at stake. - Help them define what solved looks like. "What would need to be true for you to feel like this was handled?" This helps them get the in driver seat as the hero of the story and you get to be the guide to help them. - Go back to the business payoff. "If that was in place, what's the payoff for the business?" Ideally get #s but good chance it's building the foundation for deeper conversations later. - Tie the outcome back to what they told you matters personally. "And if you solved it you'd get (insert what they care about personally)?" - Share a relevant customer story that is similar and position it as how you helped THEM. Then ask the buyer..."Does that sound in line with what you're looking for?" This avoids you coming in with the assumption of helping. It's positioned as hypothesis. Questions gather information. This sequence builds trust and alignment in your first interaction. If you're losing deals to no decision, go through this step by step on your next call. It WILL help. If you want my help implementing it: https://lnkd.in/e2XwF3eN