Kim Bohr is CEO at
SparkEffect, where she helps executive teams navigate disruption, organizational change, and emerging technology without sacrificing trust.
With more than 25 years of cross-functional leadership experience, Kim advises leaders on aligning business strategy with human-centered practices that strengthen performance and relationships. Her work includes the SparkEffect Trust Elasticity™ framework, designed to help organizations evaluate and strengthen trust during periods of change.
Kim is also a board advisor, adjunct lecturer, speaker, host of the Courage to Advance podcast, and author of Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned.
SHOW SUMMARY
What if every interaction with a buyer is either building trust or quietly eroding it?
In this episode of Selling from the Heart, Larry Levine and Darrell Amy welcome Kim Bohr to explore what it takes to build and protect trust in a world shaped by AI, disruption, informed buyers, and constant change.
Kim explains why authentic selling begins with genuinely believing that what you offer will improve the customer's work or life. She shares how trust is created through consistent patterns, honest communication, and actions that demonstrate you truly have the customer's best interests at heart.
The conversation also explores the changing role of sales professionals. Buyers may have more information than ever, but they still need someone who can provide context, ask thoughtful questions, connect the dots, and understand the realities behind their decisions. Kim challenges sellers to use AI to eliminate repetitive work—not replace critical thinking, curiosity, vulnerability, or human connection.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Serve before you sell. Believe in the value you bring before asking someone to buy.
- Trust is built through consistent patterns between what you say and what customers experience.
- Admitting when you don't know something can build more trust than pretending you do.
- Buyers may have information, but they still need sales professionals who can provide context and connect the dots.
- AI should support critical thinking and human connection—not replace them.
- Reinvest time saved through automation into research, better conversations, and stronger relationships.
- Understand the entire buying team, not just the person signing the agreement.
- Trust can be measured and should be treated as a meaningful business KPI.
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES
Do I genuinely believe that whatever I’m offering is going to help this person’s work and life get easier?
Every single interaction we have, whether it’s human to human or from a digital lens, trust is either being built or eroded.
Our job is to help them see what they may not be able to connect the dots on.
Just because I know they can use what I have doesn’t mean I understand the problem.
Trust can be measured, and it is as important as any other KPI you are tracking.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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