Using Humility to Gain Trust in Sales

A special thanks to today’s sponsor, Mixmax - let their AI handle your emails, updates, and follow-ups, so you can stick to selling.

Good Morning! It’s National Ding-A-Ling Day - a holiday celebrated by giving a call (or ding-a-ling) to friends and family who you’ve lost touch with throughout the year. In classic Follow Up fashion, we’ll use this holiday to touch base with our prospects who’ve been ignoring us throughout the year. Happy Ding-a-Ling-ing out there. 🤣 

• The key to being trustworthy 🔑 

• Automate emails, updates, and follow-ups 🔄 

• Control the sales process 🗣️ 

• How to sell to engineering teams 👀 

• Sales jobs & a meme 😂

Sponsor The Follow Up | Subscribe

The Key to Being Trustworthy

A series of five studies found that scientists who showed intellectual humility were viewed as more trustworthy than those who didn’t.

Which is the exact opposite of what you’d probably think.

It would seem like a scientist admitting that their knowledge is limited would appear like they don’t know what they’re talking about. But it turns out, it does the opposite and makes people trust them even more.

And as you’ve probably guessed, the same theory can be applied to sales.

Using humility as a salesperson is a quick way to come across as trustworthy to your prospects, and maybe even allow you to build trust with your colleagues.

The Power of "I Don’t Know"

We’ve all been in this scenario: A prospect asks you a question, and you just flat out don’t know the answer.

So… you could either take a guess and hope for the best. But you run the risk of telling them something that’s wrong.

This is where honesty can be a superpower. When you admit knowledge gaps, you're not showing weakness. You're showing integrity.

Here are some phrases to turn uncertainty into an opportunity:

• Great question. I want to make sure I give you 100% accurate info. Let me check with our engineering team right after this and get back to you.

• I'm newer to this role, so I'll be transparent - I'm not certain. But right after this, I can find the answer for you.

• I honestly don’t know the answer, and I don’t want to lead you in the wrong direction. Would it be ok if I set up a quick chat later this week with our specialist who knows more about that?

But that’s not where it stops…

The real trust building comes from the follow-through. If you said you were going to get them an answer - do it. And do it as soon as you possibly can.

Turn Product Limitations into Opportunities

Your product doesn't have a feature? Don't sweat it.

Be honest about limitations and use it as a storytelling moment:

• We don't have that feature, and the reason is that we did a study on people using XYZ, and found that 90% of users didn't actually need that feature, despite paying for it.

• There’s a few larger companies out there that offer that feature, but we’ve found that by focusing on the core functionality, we can keep our pricing more competitive and pass those savings on to you.

The Colleague Connection Hack

Admit it… you want your colleagues to like you and trust you.

We all do. Weather we say it or not.

So here’s a hack to building quick connections and trust: Approach colleagues with genuine curiosity and humility.

• I've noticed your email open rates are insane! I just can’t seem to crack cold emails and would love to learn from you. Any chance you could share some tips with a curious teammate?

Most people love being recognized as an expert.

By asking for help, and admitting what you don’t know - you open up the opportunity for someone to trust you and want to help.

You + Mixmax = No more boring admin tasks

For so many salespeople, this is what juggling daily sales tasks looks like:

Mixmax’s sales engagement platform keeps things simple—helping you reach the right prospects, right when it counts.

AI takes care of the emails, updates, and follow-ups, so you can stick to what you’re best at: building relationships + closing deals.