Building Trust for Success

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When it comes to business success, having a spotless, rock-solid reputation is critical to your business. A solid reputation is based on trust, credibility and subject matter expertise. You need to make sure to achieve those qualities quickly.

Think about how many salespeople you have had the "pleasure" of dealing with before finding one who you felt wasn't just out for your money. Just the other day, I caught a car salesman in a lie, and there was no way that I could do business with him after that. In a matter of minutes, I had lost all respect for him, and there was no turning back after that.

If you mess up just once, that's all it will take for a prospect or customer to never trust you or do business with you again. It's as simple as that.

ONLY AFTER ACCOMPLISHING THIS TRUST-BUILDING CAN YOU BEGIN YOUR WORK ON GETTING WELL ROOTED AND MAKING YOUR POPULARITY "SEAL THE DEAL."

There are a few things that can cause a client to feel a sense of trust in your company and product.

  • A professional website – Choose a domain name that reflects your business. Always give your physical address and contact details so that the customer knows that you are not another fly-by-night operator. Having a personal website is important as well, for several reasons, but most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to tell potential clients what you are about, your vision and values and why you deserve their confidence and trust. In short, it gives you credibility.
     
  • Impressive photographs – Photographs of yourself in a business setting can help your prospective customers to make a connection with you. Have them taken by a professional to ensure that the photographs give the desired impression.
  • Genuine Testimonials–Testimonials are the trust builders in any business. They speak volumes about your capability and likeability. Obtain them from your best clients and ask them to be specific.
     
  • A Professional Email address – Your email address must reflect your domain name. This shows that you own a proper website and are not just testing the waters.
     
  • A Professional-looking Business Card – Do not use home printed business cards. Also, avoid free business cards, as they usually carry the name of the printing company on the reverse side and make you sell their product rather than your own.
     
  • Link With The Famous – A great way of being known is by linking, if you can, with known personalities. If they could speak about and/or recommend your product or service, your credibility would skyrocket.

You can also create your business profile on business networking websites such as LinkedIn and increase your friends and connections.

Another way of linking up is to go to Yahoo search and type "linkdomain:(some website's URL)."The results page will show all of the websites that have linked up with that particular URL. Assuming that the URL is one that belongs with your type of business, you can extend a hand of friendship to the professionals who own these sites. You can be of some service to them and exchange links to mutually help each other. This is an acceptable way of linking up.

If you already possess the knowledge to establish yourself in your targeted niche, do not let the uncertainty of how clients will respond make you anxious. Yes, your credibility and expertise will be scrutinized by clients and also by other experts on the market. But do not let insecurity grip you. Every marketer must face two opposing sides of themselves. Most experts face these two sides, but in the end, the positive side takes over.

Conclusion

So, believe in yourself and your abilities and let your positive side take control. Only then will you become an expert and root yourself well in your niche, and let others see all that you have to offer. The more you give to other people, the more they will want to interact with you and to also give of themselves to you.

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Author

  • Marco Giunta

    Marco Giunta is a Senior Business Development Executive and the author of the book: Rethinking Sales.

    He is a leading expert in Global Outsourcing with a focus on banking, financial services and other Industry sectors and has a long list of clients. Mr. Giunta is a speaker and presenter. He has led start-ups, business strategy groups, technology think tanks and has experience as a career coach. Visit Marco’s website at marcogiunta.com.

12 Responses

  1. Linda Finkle says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: ForbesWoman
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    I agree that having all those pieces…professional business card, website etc. are important. However to me what they do is establish some level of credibility, not trust. Trust builds through one-on-one relationships. Those pieces are necessary for a business but will all be for not if when they meet you or do business with you they don’t feel comfortable with you as the person.
    Posted by Linda Finkle

  2. Christine Brady says:

    Hi Marco,

    Some great ideas here!

    I would definitely focus on setting these things up as soon as you start to build your online presence.

    But it doesn’t stop there – trust and credibility are ongoing. You are never “done!”

    Establishing a professional appearance is a priority though!

    Thanks for sharing and have a great week!

    ~Christine

  3. James Avant says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Music Bloggers, Writers and Professionals
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    Online rep. VERY is important. What you post gets around, and comes right back at you, so be aware of managing your reputation.
    Great post!
    Posted by James Avant

  4. Usman Rajput says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Social Marketing Group
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    What if trust overshadows your nature ?
    Posted by Usman Rajput

  5. Usman Rajput says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Social Marketing Group
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    or we are not building the trust of yours but your past.
    Posted by Usman Rajput

  6. Junaid Tahir says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: HBR Bulletin Board
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    Building Trusts helps in many ways. May it be in business sense, professional or personal level, it empowers the relationship and consequently generates a win-win success.
    Posted by Junaid Tahir

  7. Ryan Biddulph says:

    Hi Marco and Michael,

    Convey a professional image. Invest in your business, including your website.

    Add credibility to your opportunity. Potential customers trust you, and your opportunity, if you treat it like a real business, not a hobby.

    Invest, gain trust, prosper.

    Thanks!

    RB

  8. Nancy Passow says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Linked-N Bergen County NJ
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    Gene, great articles and examples. In my Technical Communications course at FDU, there’s a section on resumes, cover letters, etc., where I remind the students that they need to use a professional-sounding e-mail address. They have an option to keep their FDU e-mail address with alumni rather than student in it — so much better than a hotmail account.
    Posted by Nancy Passow

  9. Gene Sower says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Linked-N Bergen County NJ
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    Hi Nancy, especially in business, when someone tells me their email and it’s an AOL address, it’s sort of similar to when someone gives me a business card and it says Vista Print on the back. If they can’t invest in their own business, why should I?
    Posted by Gene Sower

  10. Glenn R Harrington says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Consultants Network | North America
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    I appreciate the article, MIchael. Yet, I do not consider it as telling the whole truth. We differ on two points:

    ONE: A great way to build trust and generate loyalty is to make full, humble reparations when an error occurs. For example, if you spot a hair in your soup, the rastaurant takes the soup off the bill, brings any replacement you want, and gets a manager or other person more authoritative than the waiter/waitress to apologize face-to-face. Maybe the whole meal becomes free. A restaurant that does this can get the customer to come back more effectively than if there had been no hair in the soup. Not every business can be 10/10 professional all the time and should compensate for that optimally, as in this example.

    TWO: It is often possible tor a website, business card, or other form of presenting the company to be TOO professional (too slick) for some. This depends on the ideal client profile. All sorts of brand collateral ought to be tested before put into use. One important form of feedback gauges whether the company comes across as feeling right for people who match the ideal client profile. This is where “too slick” and “Not in my league” can help to correct overly-professional presentation.

    Posted by Glenn R Harrington

  11. Frank A. Campbell says:

    Thank you very much for starting this discussion on trust. Since becoming familiar with Stephen R. Covey’s work on the way trust speeds up success, I’ve pondered the importance of this concept to the field of writing, editing, speaking and communication in general. The comments so far have been illuminating. I agree that we need to distinguish between being credible–in the sense of being professional–and actually building trust, which is a more all-encompassing idea that includes competence but is more focussed on character. Good conversation. Let the ideas flow!

  12. Susan Risdal says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    • Group: Linked-N Bergen County NJ
    • Discussion: Building Trust for Success

    My company provides a Collaboration suite, including professional emails. For a new or start up business, this is vital for all of the reasons listed above. Perhaps the most important reason to have a private email address is that your email is not likely to be hacked. It seems I get hacked emails from friends who’s sites are hosted by free sites in this order (with most-hacked being first): Yahoo (amazing how many people are getting their addresses hacked), aol, hotmail, gmail. We usually recommend to our small business clients that they block all personal email sites to protect the corporate systems from malware.
    Posted by Susan Risdal