It’s All About Their Trust in You: Will You Deliver the Promised Value?

The trust factor is an important business decision point today. We all need reliable, competent, and trustworthy partners. Let’s discover the 10 essentials of trust, including the trust-building power of success.

When you’re developing connections that you hope will become clients/customers, trust will be a big chunk of your brand image and unique value proposition.  It may be at the core of what others see in you. In fact, trust is central to likability because we generally don’t like people who will cause us a lot of misery.

Trust is important because people don’t like losing. It hurts their self-esteem and confidence when they get ripped off, feelings hurt, they lose time and money, and their own trustworthiness is affected. Mistrust is like bad Karma even if you think it’s not deserved. It’s all relative to how they see life and people.

Relevance, integrity, competence, drive, consistency, communication, transparency, commitment and more traits are all part of this picture of trust we develop.  Hopefully you’ll be able to convey this to your prospects and clients via your Website and social posts. They trust that you want to make them successful and they’re confident of your presence in their business life.

If there’s a poor fit between you and them, integrity will fail, and then trust will spiral downward. So, much of what we call trust is actually an extension of relevance and compatibility. But even with perfect compatibility, the trust traits must be present. (e.g., without communication, trust and confidence will erode).

Trust in the Online World

trust
Found on stevesipress.com Steve Sipress

Google’s search engine ranks web pages and web sites based on a number of factors, but trustworthiness is one the top things they look for (Trustrank or Trust Factor).  They actually have a way of determining whether a page is reputable or deceptive.

What Customers Want

They want closer, more familiar and personal relationships, even in business. They want to talk with you, laugh, cry, agonize, and share their joys.

If you expose your “self” online then your initial meeting gets off to a great start.    By letting them discover common interests with you, know what you believe and value, and how you behave and express yourself, you’re making it easy for them to discover you as a reliable, competent, understood and trustworthy provider.

The Components of Trust

  1. Familiarity – are you like other people they know and have trusted?
  2. Similar values – do you value the same things?
  3. Relevance – are your relevant to their life and mission?
  4. Transparency – are your motives and behaviour visible?
  5. Integrity — will you be fair and ethical?
  6. Experience – do you have experience in their sector?
  7. Shared experiences — are there events/activities you have in common?
  8. Dependable and committed – what is your intent and do you follow through with agreements?
  9. Empathy — do you show you understand them and like them?
  10. Competence & Success — people trust success because it’s proof everything worked and they’re not about to suffer the humiliation of loss — they trust your POWER.

Transparency does differentiate. And it’s powerful. Transparency helps to deliver all the components of trust.  More business people are blogging and tweeting, and essentially, this is just a way to let strangers know who you are and to consider you as relevant.

If you’re hidden, it tells them you’re an old school guy hiding in the bushes. They can’t help thinking they’re going to get ambushed and robbed. Just as in personal relationships, openness and vulnerability are huge assets in developing trust. Let people know who you are, even with your flaws, and stand behind that message.

Natural, Organic Relations

As part of their day, in their quest for deeper insight, prospects arrive at your website. They will read a lot because they want to get to know you before they agree to a lasting relationship with you. An advertisement or a cold sales call isn’t organic and no trust has been established.

I’m a content strategist which means I’m responsible for creating content that captivates, informs, entices and builds a relationship or connection with customers. Hopefully the voice of that content resonates well with the customers I’m hoping to attract. As a business development manager, you’re using your content to mate with your targeted prospect’s needs. If you can build trust and prove fulfillment on many levels, you won’t have to sell anything.

Trust and credibility are key to customers.  Any branding and content strategy has to play up trust and credibility.

If your Realty IDX website isn’t performing well, then check the trustworthiness of your content, style and presentation. Your content strategy should be built on a foundation of trustworthiness.