BACON – Chapter 9: Trust Me…

Trust is not an event. Trust is a process. Unlike KNOW and LIKE, TRUST cannot be found through an online activity. It has to be accomplished through human-to-human interaction.

Trust has to be earned. Once earned, it’s not like a merit badge. It’s more like a battery that has to be recharged constantly. It is recharged through human-to-human interaction.

Trust has to be planted and grown. It is a seed planted through a personal relationship. It needs to grow roots and be nurtured through light and water to produce fruit. Trust must be watered by honesty, warmed and fed through the light of integrity, and rooted in consistency. Strong roots and branches provide shade and shelter in the stormy weather of doubt.

The Enigma of Trust

It would be great if there were a way to measure trust. You can calculate the number of people who know or connect with you. You can measure likes by the number of people who interact with your social posts or open your emails. However, trust can only be seen when a transaction happens.

In the consumer world, the general feeling is that trust happens when a transaction occurs. The goal is to convince a buyer to trade money for your product or service. Then you want to build a repeat buyer. This can be done in a variety of ways.

The most common consumer sales and marketing technique is served up as a coupon or a rewards program. Once you identify a buyer, can you entice them to trade their information for a discount?

Once you do, you can constantly remind them that they bought your product once and offer them incentives to do it again.

I get a free bag after buying twelve when I buy dog food at my pet supply store. When I buy groceries, I get fuel rewards that allow me to buy gas at a discount. Both of them send me emails with sales, member benefits, and more. All for exchanging my email and cell phone number.

Both scenarios assume that I trust the store to deliver consistency when buying from them. This is done by tracking what I buy, when I buy it, and reminding me that I need to buy it again. It could come in the form of an email or a text.

That requires my loyalty to that store and its brands. If my brand is no longer available or out of stock, I will look elsewhere. This could cause me to form a new habit of buying from the new vendor.

It’s a very transactional relationship.

B2b Means Bigger Risk

Business-to-business trust is different from consumer trust.

In my book Toilet Paper Math, I use the toilet paper analogy. If I buy the wrong toilet paper as a consumer, the worst thing that could happen is I have to sleep on the couch. In business, if I buy the wrong toilet paper, the worst thing that could happen is I have to sleep on the street.

Buying the wrong toilet paper at home may anger my family and cost me $10, but it can be corrected relatively easily.

Buying the wrong toilet paper at work could affect one or multiple locations. Any buying decision is usually a group effort, with bosses and subordinates being kept in the loop and affected by any decisions.

The janitors will report that they only installed the toilet paper and will not take the blame. Bosses generally hate to deal with damage control and have to find a person to direct blame upon.

At home, you deal with personal preferences. At work, you mess with individual income. It might not even be your fault, but you could be made the scapegoat to protect others.

The bigger the purchase, the bigger the risk. The bigger the risk, the more that trust has to be factored in.

They have to trust that you can deliver what you are selling, that you will be there if and when they need to re-order, and that you won’t bait and switch or raise your prices at the last minute.

Because of that, relationships have to be formed, nurtured, and revisited constantly. Buyers need and want to know that you are the real deal. They want to know that you are reliable and in it for the long haul. They literally and figuratively bet their business, job, and livelihood on you and your products and services.

So, with business-to-business, trust can not be earned through a coupon or a rewards program. Trust can only be earned through interpersonal relationships and delivering on what you promise.

The Trust Flow

Trust is where transactions happen. A transaction is a commitment. Thinking you could go from like to trust is like walking into a room, seeing someone smile at you, and then walking up and immediately asking them to marry you. Typically, it takes a bit of courting before you pop the question.

There are five stages to go from like to trust: Connection, Caution, Consistency, Courage, and Commitment.

• Connection is when you have established that your interests intersect and you have some form of mutual benefit.
• Caution is the point when trust begins to form. This is where questions are asked and answered, and you patiently get a sense of character and integrity.
• Consistency happens through repeat meetings and conversations. Words and actions are being evaluated to codify the initial infatuation.
• Courage requires taking risks. How far can you go to prove that you are reliable and the real deal?
• Commitment is where trust is tested. It is essential for maintaining and strengthening the bond you have been building.

Social media and email can help maintain the connection. Still, caution, consistency, courage, and commitment will be revisited over time, albeit usually in a more condensed form than the first time.

Automating Trust

No tool, system, or software program can automate trust. You may think that sending emails, keeping people in the loop, and sending them direct messages may help, and they do. But the only way to maintain and nurture trust is through human-to-human interaction.

That requires effort, time, and repetition. They may reach out to you or you to them, but you can keep trust alive through conversations.

Face-to-face interaction is by far the best way to communicate. You have all the audible and visual indications that integrity, empathy, and enthusiasm are present.

Zoom meetings and phone calls are probably a good substitute if you can’t meet in person, but they lack the sense of touch (a warm handshake or hug), the sense of smell, and other micro-indications.

Pure digital communications like email, text, and messaging apps lack the subtleties of humor, inflection, and visual cues, often providing signs that trust is verified and justified. Although these are good for quick interactions, we tend to be too lazy to provide complete context to get a full picture of why we are reaching out and a full spectrum of emotion, context, and complexity.

The best secret weapon in building and maintaining trust is your presence, persistence, and personal time to preserve the trust you have already earned proactively.

Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at?The Bacon Podcast.