No man ever became president of the USA who already had experience in running the largest economy in the world. (Or the most powerful military at the same time)
Many people are promoted to CEO who have no previous experience running a large corporation. Jeffrey Inmelt was pretty experienced, but stepping up to the mantle of CEO at GE is several orders of magnitude different. And he had never done that before...
This theme occurs again and again. new hires, promotions, the first contract, the first time they come to one of your courses... and so on.
They don't know for certain if you are going to be worthy of their trust in your character and abilities. But they are willing to take a chance...
In Latin America one time I was referred by the CEO of a resources firm to their senior Director for asset management.
After our first meeting he decided he was willing to trust me further and met some of the people that I recommended to him.
Within three months this willingness to trust had turned into several small scale projects, culminating in a $3 million USD contract for software services.
And I still keep in contact with him today. And I still hold his trust...
This is the benefit of trust based assets like referrals from a trusted source, and an enviable track record of success. It lowers the perceived risk.
The more you develop trust based assets, the more likely you are to encounter a high willingness to trust. And the more likely you are to convert that into revenues.
