Ten years in sales and partnerships teaches you the same lesson from a dozen different angles: trust is the actual product, and whatever you are selling is just the vehicle for it.
I learned this most clearly building the partner program at LiveSource App, where the relationships that generated the most revenue were rarely the ones with the most impressive logo. They were the ones where the partner believed, correctly, that we would tell them the truth even when the truth was inconvenient for us. A partner who hears "this probably will not work for your audience" once, and finds out later that we were right, will bring us the next three partnerships without being asked.
The same pattern showed up later at ReferralHero and Videobot, in different markets with different products. The reps and account managers who built durable books of business were not the most polished presenters. They were the ones willing to lose a deal in the short term by being honest about fit, because that honesty is what made the next ten deals easier.
This is also why I do not do generic discovery calls anymore. A discovery call is not a step before the pitch, it is the first test of whether I am willing to tell a prospective client something they do not want to hear. If I pass that test, the rest of the relationship tends to take care of itself.
Trust compounds slower than a single closed deal and outlasts every one of them. That trade has been worth it every time.