Trust - building trustworthiness and trusted advisor status

In the insurance industry, in particular, we often focus on developing our technical skills, and our product and service knowledge in the belief that this alone will be all we need to win new clients, and then provide great service to existing clients. But of course if the prospect does not ‘trust’ us sufficiently we are unlikely to be appointed in the first place, and if our clients don’t trust us, it will be more difficult for us to bring value, and our position will be constantly under threat. This session focuses on the importance of Trust in prospect and client relationships, and how to build it.

Content

• The benefits of Trust and trustworthiness in client and prospect relationships
• The characteristics of a Trusted Advisor
• How does Rapport relate to Trust?
• Building Trust through the Trust Equation
• Stages of Trust building
• Adapting Trust building in the hybrid working world

Biographies

Nick Thomas – principal, sales and communication skills, performance trainer and coach

Nick offers a unique combination of skills in the UK insurance training sector – an industry sales specialist and a widely qualified professional coach and trainer. Nick is an Economics graduate with over 25 years corporate insurance broking experience. He was a highly successful sales producer in the UK broking market before progressing into regional and then national sales leadership roles. As National Development Director at HSBC, Nick was one of only 40 people from a global workforce of 265,000 selected as part of the STARS programme to recognise exceptional performance. He is a highly trained consultative sales specialist, and his experience includes a secondment with a major management consultant to design a best practice sales process.

In the mid-2000s, Nick developed a chronic health condition; his journey to recovery fostered a new range of interests, and a passion for health, and performance. He studied widely, qualifying as a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), obtaining a Diploma in Life Coaching, before going on to study Corporate/Business Coaching with The Coaching Academy. He is also a qualified Holistic Lifestyle Coach and Advanced Exercise Coach.

Nick has worked in a self-employed capacity in training, coaching, and consulting since 2017, including as a specialist adviser in Insurance sector M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) sector. He set up Nick Thomas & Associates in 2020 in response to demand from his industry network for training solutions designed and delivered by people with a background of working in the industry.

Nick Thomas & Associates – specialist-training solutions to the UK Insurance Sector

Nick Thomas & Associates provides up to the minute training solutions addressing the challenges of the modern insurance professional, across sales, communication, and soft skills; technical insurance; customer service; management and leadership; performance, resilience, and health.

Nick Thomas delivers all sales, communication, and soft skills sessions, partnering with selected subject matter specialists in the other delivery categories.

Associates are selected for their strong industry background and credibility, allied to first class training skills.

All training programmes are designed specifically to align to client needs and delivery overseen by Nick Thomas.

Nick Thomas & Associates received acclaim for training and webinar series providing solutions to the challenges of remote working and virtual trading.

Our clients include major insurers and independent brokers, a major global Insurer ‘broker proposition’, broker network groups, insurance recruitment consultants and over forty local insurance institutes at the time of writing.