Last week’s tip came from a marketing story with embedded lessons about deepening existing client relationships. This week’s story holds an important lesson about what not to do when you’re trying to build trust with new stakeholders.

Five years ago I was surprised by a knock at the door—an unexpected delivery of baked goods from a local sweet shop. The package included a hand-written note from Kacy, the office organizer I had hired exactly one year before. The sweets were to commemorate my first anniversary in my new home office, with a reminder that she was available should any lingering piles be in my way, and a no-obligation request to tell others about her services if I was so inclined.

I’m writing this message from the lobby of a schwanky hotel in Washington DC (my home town), where my colleague Nicolette and I have dedicated a day to writing stuff that supports our respective businesses: weekly tips and blogs for me, and a book for her. This is the result of a pact we made late last year to help each other take time out to do what would otherwise fall by the wayside. We chose the hotel setting thanks to inspiration from my friends at Valuable Content, who advise that writing great content is most likely when we step away from our usual surroundings, and also go somewhere we’ll look forward to.

Did you know the hallmark skill of the best salespeople is the same one that sets the extraordinary consultants from the pretty good ones, and that distinguishes advisors from trusted advisors?

If you’re like most business professionals, you’re not short on holiday parties and networking events to attend. And, like most of us, you’re probably going about it wrong.

Of the 63,000+ people who have completed Trusted Advisor Associates’ Trust Quotient™ survey (a self-assessment), Reliability comes out 21 percentage points higher than any of the other three elements of the Trust Equation. This isn’t really surprising, given that reliability is the easiest to grasp and execute. Reliability is logical, concrete, and action-oriented.