The Trust Factor Win your customers' faith by learning the 5 key components of trust.

If building relationships is the key to sales success, then trust is the foundation. Ask any top sales performer what factors contribute to their success, and you'll hear that building trust is vital in their dealings with customers. But how do you build trust? Usually, it's the little things you do over time that make the difference. I call this establishing the T.R.U.S.T. factor.

The following five strategies will help you form strong relationships and long-term success with not just your customers, but also everyone you surround yourself with.

1. Truth:We can do many things to lose business: not deliver on time, not communicate effectively, not follow up. But from your customers' point of view, lying is the number-one way to lose their trust and business forever. I've been in many situations where I know that the answer I give the customer will jeopardize the sale, but I've found that sometimes you lose the battle and end up winning the war. In the long run, you've built your relationships around being bone-honest--which also happens to be one of the top traits that high achievers throughout history have had in common.