The Abject Mediocrity of “Know, Like, and Trust”

Maybe it’s true in B2C or transactional B2B sales (not my areas of expertise), but the old maxim “people buy from people they know, like, and trust” is sickeningly mediocre in my area: the “Trusted Expert” wing of the B2B spectrum.

Calling it mediocre is indeed an insult, but it doesn’t mean poor quality, it means average or unremarkable.??In sales, unremarkable equals undifferentiated…which isn’t “poor” on its face, but definitely leads to poor selling outcomes.

Why This Maxim is Mediocre for My clients.

Research shows that 21% of B2B buyers engage a salesperson at the “understand needs” stage of their buying process -- these buyers are the core of the Trusted Expert wing.??You’ve undoubtedly heard that the average buyer has completed over half (the artificially precise percentage often quoted is 57%) of their buying process. The math says they can both be true: the “I want a consultant salesperson” contingent represents over one fifth of all buyers.??It's just that here are enough transactional buyers to make the 57% average true as well.??

Trusted expert buyers want something very different (than transactional buyers).??They want someone who helps them through the stage they’re actually engaged in:??understanding their situation and needs.??

Sales organizations who sell to those buyers are my people; my tribe.??They’re the ones I wrote?Radical Value?for.

That Brings Us to the Mediocre Three:

For the Trusted Advisor Sale, here is the breakdown why the "mediocre three" are so mediocre.

Customers Want to Know You.

Meh.??For a trusted advisor, that means they certainly need your phone number and email address.??Other than that, they don’t need to know much more than your track record…and that goes to “trust”, which I’ll get to. When it comes to "customers buy from people they know", that's either so obvious it's silly, or so trite it's a throwaway.

Let's shift gears: there is one critical "know". It's the inverse of "customer knows seller". And unfortunately, it's one 73% of sales people fail at.??It’s knowing your customer:?

• their business,?
• their customers,?
• their competitors,?
• their challenges,?
• their perceived risks and struggles,?
• and their aspirations.??

It gets worse. While 73% of sellers fail at this basic level, only 3% of sellers rise to the level of trusted expert.??Think of it this way: the supply of trusted advisors is 3% of sellers, while demand is 21% of customers. Do you see the opportunity???Wait, don't call now! There's actually even more demand hidden in another chunk of buyers who mistakenly believe they understand their needs, available options, and possible outcomes. Now what do you think of the supply/demand mismatch? Unfortunately, you can't fix this problem with a new sales gadget.

So…being like every other sales person, and settling for “the customer knows me” is abjectly mediocre.??It’s also dysfunctional, ineffective, and failure-inducing.

Customers Want to Like You.

Again…meh.??We know plenty of high-performing sales professionals who are cold fish.??So what gives?

It’s important that customers don’t dislike you, I’ll go that far.??I’ll even go as far as agreeing that there are some customers who lean more on personal affinity than others.??It’s a great tie-breaker for undifferentiated, commodity products on the transactional end of the spectrum. That’s a part of B2B sales I don’t engage with much, so feel free to weigh in with your experiences in the comments below.

But spending excess energy on them “liking” you as a key to your success in the trusted advisor environment???I don't buy it.

Customers Want to Trust You.

OK, this is critical.??It’s so important that I hate watering it down by combining it with the other two.

It’s right there in my label for the non-transactional segment of B2B sales:??Trusted Advisor.??

Consultants know stuff, and use that knowledge to help their clients.??They must know not only their product or service, but also be able to connect their differentiation to desirable customer outcomes.??In addition, they must understand their customers’ worlds – the list I gave under the “Know” section above -- and they need to know it better than the mediocre 97% majority.

In the “understand needs” customer buying stage, customers want trusted advisors, because the buying decision is:?

• new – to me or to my company,?
• risky -- to me or to my company,?
• or complex – the solution, or the implementation plan.

Additionally, if your offer is one where your customers mistakenly (say, because of some high-impact differentiation you have that they aren’t aware of) believe that they can bring your sales people in later, you aren’t selling the 21% who know to bring sales people in early, but you still need highly trusted advisors to break through misperceptions.

Customers also need confidence (OK, trust) you’ll do what you say you will, deliver the outcomes you promise, and that you’ll support them through their entire experience journey.

Yeah.??Saying “trust is of utmost importance” is actually underselling it. And combining trust with the other two is a smokescreen. Remember, 97% of sellers don't achieve Trusted Advisor status, which means there's a lot of sellers who think they have better "KnowLikeTrust" than they actually do. Maybe customers trust you to bring donuts or take them to a game, but not enough to buy from you.

So What Do You Think?

Is “people buy from people they know, like, and trust” the goal post you thought it was???Or do you need better???Contact me if you’d like to discuss further. Or comment below.??Or grab a copy of?Radical Value.