4.Familiarity.Research has demonstrated repeatedly that famil-
iarity builds trust. Many professionals forget that face time is
crucial to building clients’ understanding of your integrity,
competence, and general character.
5.Risk.Clients’ perception of the risk of trusting you will greatly
influence the amount of trust they place in you. That’s the
main purpose of guarantees: they reduce the risk of purchase.In influencing clients to accept your ideas, a final consideration
is the fact that every new idea will have rational, political, and per-
sonal implications for your client. Initially, for example, the movie
industry was completely unsupportive of the digital video disk
(DVD) format. Although manufacturers could make a strong,
rational case for the product, a host of political and personal issues
made studio executives unresponsive. They feared that DVDs
would upset the balance of power between studios, artists, and con-
sumers, and certain individuals did not want to put themselves out
on a limb to support a new technology that could ultimately hurt
their careers if it went badly. Niccolò Machiavelli alluded to this
phenomenon in The Prince,his great book on power and leadership
written nearly five hundred years ago. Hinting at these political and
personal dimensions, he tells us, “The innovator makes enemies
of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm
support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under
the new.”^6
Human nature has changed little since Machiavelli’s time.
New ideas will always face resistance from many fronts. The first
step is to create as fertile a ground as possible from which to
develop these new ideas. Then you’ve got to think of clients as
boulders, which will be nearly impossible to move unless you find
their “hidden creases,” the direction in which they are inclined to
go. Broad-based personal trust then gives you a base from which to
exert your influence. Finally, you have to carefully understand not
just the rational business case for your idea but also the political
and personal impact that it will have in your client’s organization.
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