It Takes Two to Tango: Building Trust-Based B2B Relationships

When it comes to building high-performing B2B relationships, trust is everything. Customer Attuned co-founder Dr Mark Hollyoake asks “Why do some partnerships develop faster and become more productive than others?”.

Edited by Alan Thompson.

This was the focus of my doctoral research — and it comes down to one key principle: When building trust-based B2B relationships, it takes two to tango.

Why Trust Matters

Every journey begins with a clear starting point, and in B2B relationship development, that means understanding the current level of trust between you and your customer. From there, two fundamental questions emerge:

1. How do we develop our B2B relationships to the level we want and need?

2. Is the current level of trust something we should preserve, or can it be further developed?

Whether you’re starting a new partnership or strengthening an existing one, the appetite for development must be mutual. Just like a tango, a successful relationship requires both parties to know the steps, understand their roles, and genuinely want to engage. Otherwise, you risk the business equivalent of one enthusiastic partner dragging along a reluctant participant — not exactly a graceful performance.

Key Areas to Explore

To avoid a misstep and build a truly strategic relationship, commercial teams should ask some critical questions. These will help uncover whether trust can — and should — be developed, and what both parties need to contribute.

1. Assess the Current Level of Trust

Begin with a clear, objective view of the current trust level on both sides. Is it high or low? Aligned or asymmetrical? In many B2B relationships, one party often leads the other — and that’s not necessarily a problem. But if the imbalance is too great, it can lead to frustration and a breakdown in value creation.

2. Understand Where Trust Resides

Is trust concentrated at the senior leadership level, rooted in strategic intent? Or is it embedded operationally, with teams delivering on that intent day-to-day? This distinction matters. Mapping your relationship along the ‘S-curve of trust’ can help identify whether you’re still in the early stages, plateauing, or ready to scale toward deeper collaboration.

3. Build a Joint Blueprint for Growth

Do both organisations have a shared plan to grow the relationship and unlock mutual value? Is there a clear roadmap that outlines who needs to do what, and how trust will translate into results? Without a joint strategy, good intentions often stay just that — intentions.

Questions to Consider

When evaluating the potential of a trust-based relationship, it’s helpful to reflect on a few broader questions:

Is the desire mutual? You may be ready to build something long-term, but does the other party feel the same? A lack of clarity or alignment on value can stall progress.
Are leadership teams aligned? Do both sides clearly understand the opportunities, expectations, and roles involved — and are those messages consistently communicated across teams?
Is there a defined ‘way of working’? Trust grows from openness, empowerment, and consistent behaviours. Are these in place across all levels of both organisations?

Is the Relationship Worth Developing?

Not all relationships are destined to evolve into high-trust, high-value partnerships. Some customers may be focused on transactional outcomes, where the emphasis is on cost-efficiency and operational effectiveness. In those cases, your goal might not be to deepen trust, but to optimise performance.

It’s important to prioritise — not all customers warrant the same level of investment. A trust-based segmentation model, mapping customers based on existing trust levels and potential value, can help you focus where it counts most.

Managing the Relationship

Once you’ve identified the relationships worth investing in, put in place a clear mechanism to manage them. This means understanding each other’s values, cultures, behaviours, and expectations — and knowing how to navigate them. Without this, even high-trust relationships can falter.

Customer segmentation doesn’t need to be overly complex. Aim to group accounts into a manageable number of segments that reflect both trust maturity and growth potential. From there, you can tailor your approach accordingly.

Final Thoughts

Before you set out to grow your B2B relationships, ask yourself:

Do both parties want to tango?

Do both parties know how to tango?

Is the potential mutual value worth the effort?

Trust isn’t automatic — but with the right foundation, it can become your greatest competitive advantage.

Customer Attuned’s suite of services are designed to help you build effective, trust-based business relationships that bring mutual value – value to both you and your customer. We do this through building Customer Strategy and developing your people.

Want to learn more about trust-based B2B segmentation and relationship development?
Contact Dr. Mark Hollyoake on LinkedIn or via our contact form.

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Alan Thompson

Director & Head of People Capability at Customer Attuned Ltd

Alan has an in-depth knowledge of capability development with extensive experience of designing and delivering blended training solutions for clients across several industries, making use of online, virtual and traditional classroom training methods.

Alan is a very engaging classroom tutor, and has enjoyed working with a variety of global clients over the past few years to deliver highly successful people development programmes.