What Undercover Cops Can Teach You About Building Trust Fast

Good Morning. New York City's hottest new bar just opened, and it's nearly impossible to get in. The catch? It's on the 13th floor of JPMorgan's Park Avenue headquarters, it's for employees only, and has 55 seats for 10,000 employees. Junior bankers are booking tables weeks in advance just to grab a drink with their coworkers. Who knew a company bar could make employees beg for a spot to have a beer with the people they already spend 60 hours a week with? That's how you know scarcity works. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

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Building trust in sales feels slow. It’s a bit of an art and science.

A few good calls, a lunch, and a lot of actually doing what you say you’re going to.

It all adds up. And over time, your prospect starts to believe you're not just another sales rep using them for a commission check. It works. But it takes months.

FBI undercover agents don't get months. When an agent walks into a room full of people who would kill him if they found out who he really was, he has to build deep, real trust in days.

The FBI has spent decades studying how trust actually forms and training agents to accelerate it.

Here’s three of those techniques that translate directly to how you can build trust in B2B sales.

In 1976, FBI agent Joe Pistone went undercover as "Donnie Brasco" and infiltrated the Bonanno crime family.

The operation lasted over five years and led to more than 200 indictments.

But Pistone didn't walk into a room and say, " Wasss up” to the mob boss. I can only imagine how that would have gone…

He spent weeks hanging around the street level wise guys. Playing cards. Sharing meals. Making himself useful on small tasks. He built trust at the bottom, got vouched for, and was introduced up the chain through people who trusted him.

That's exactly how champion-building works in B2B sales. You build a real relationship with someone on the team first. You solve a small problem for them. You earn their trust.

And then they introduce you up the ladder, because their reputation is now attached to yours.

Chris Voss spent 24 years as an FBI hostage negotiator.

His single most effective technique was something he calls "labeling."

When someone is hesitant, defensive, or going quiet, you name what they're feeling. "It seems like the timeline might be a concern." Or, "It sounds like you've been burned by vendors before."

You're calling out that you actually see what's going on, and neuroscience backs this up. When someone feels accurately understood, the amygdala literally calms down. Defensiveness drops, and they open up.

Most reps do the opposite. A prospect goes quiet after pricing and the rep starts justifying the cost. An FBI negotiator would pause and say, "It seems like that number landed differently than you expected." Then shut up. Let them talk.

The person who feels heard is the person who trusts you.

Dr. Jack Schafer spent years in the FBI's National Security Behavioral Analysis Program, where his job was literally figuring out how to make spies flip.

He boiled trust down to a formula: Proximity + Frequency + Duration + Intensity.

Translation: trust builds when you show up consistently, not just when you need something.

FBI agents building a source maintain a steady rhythm of contact. Short check-ins. Shared meals. Quick calls that aren't about the case.

A lot of reps will have a great discovery call or demo, then go silent for three weeks. By the time they resurface, the champion has cooled off, and momentum is gone.

The fix is simple. Stay in touch even when you don't have an update. Share something that made you think of them. Ask how that product launch they mentioned is going. Reference something specific from your last conversation so they know you were actually listening.

Schafer's point is that trust isn't built in one big moment or with a quick hack. It compounds over time. And the reps who stay present between the big moments are the ones whose champions actually fight for them when it's time to make a decision.

Today’s newsletter was written by Nic Conley