While executive recruiters greatly value their relationships with their talent pool and prospective candidates, there is one relationship that is of paramount importance to them: the relationship with the executive hiring team that has hired them to fill an open position. Trust is one of the biggest components to any good relationship—without trust it is difficult to meet goals and easy for negatives to creep into the recruiting process and hinder it. Here are some ways to build trust with your executive hiring teams. 1. Know your stuff. Not only should you be well-versed and experienced in effective recruiting techniques, but you should also do diligent research on your clients so you can ask relevant questions and get a precise handle on their needs. Research doesn’t only involve Google searches and reading written materials, it should also involve talking to key people at the company who can provide insight into the company’s needs. 2. Provide data. A lot of things in the executive recruiting process are done because of gut reactions—things that can’t really be pinned down by the recruiter. This can pose a problem for hiring teams, who don’t have the same understanding of the process and may not be able to just trust a recruiter’s instincts. But there are plenty of tools that can provide data to back up a recruiter’s assertions; using these tools can be a way to show that you can be trusted to know how to proceed and have things well in hand in completing the process. 3. Do what you say you will do. A person’s word still means a lot, and failure to keep your word is one of the ways trust is most often destroyed. It can be tempting to over-promise to get a client or because in the moment you foolishly feel like you can fulfill the promise, but it’s important to be realistic about what you can actually do and then make sure you prioritize your time to deliver on your word. When you do this, clients will learn that they can rely on you to give them what they need and they will trust you more because of it. 4. Go above and beyond. A hiring team that sees you go above and beyond in the recruiting process will be more inclined to trust you, because going above and beyond is associated with other positive traits like hard work and integrity that are innate rather than learned. If the hiring team sees you as innately good as well as good at what you do, trust will follow. 5. Admit your mistakes. For many people, admitting a mistake is nearly impossible because they think it will ruin their reputation and destroy trust. In reality, however, trying to blame others for a mistake always reflects poorly on you and can do even more to destroy trust than the mistake itself. There isn’t much integrity in trying to deny a mistake that is plain for all involved to see, or to deflect responsibility when you are the one in charge of the recruiting process. Only an unrealistic hiring team expects a smooth process where there are never any problems or mistakes. The right kind of team will respect you for taking ownership of the mistake and working to fix it. Thrive TRM can streamline the executive recruiting process so you can build trust with hiring teams through customized reports, instant communication, and the ability to do more in less time. Discover solutions for search firms to see what Thrive TRM can help you accomplish.