TRUST – THE FORGOTTEN MARKETING TOOL

The travel agent tells me I need to confirm my booking very soon as flights will only go up in price. I spot her impending event close a mile off. In my misplaced wisdom, I delay my decision and end up paying more because I didn’t think her advice was genuine.

The personable roadside strawberry seller disappoints with his lack of eftpos but delights by adding my name to his IOU list on a battered old piece of cardboard. He thinks I have a trustworthy face, he’s willing to take a chance on me (and many other locals). I will buy his strawberries for ever more.

Trust is a vital element of any on-going business relationship. My tenuous one-off transaction with the strawberry man became repeat business because he trusted me. I had booked with the travel agent many times before but my distrust of her motives cost me dearly and damaged the good thing we had going.

Showing you trust someone is paying them the ultimate compliment. You could be sharing an insight, extending credit, making them an administrator on your company’s LinkedIn page. These actions are enablers but it’s mutual trust that makes them possible. Without it the wheels of commerce would grind to a halt.

Do you genuinely want to resolve your clients’ challenges, do you love being able to provide solutions, improve someone’s day or is your focus to meet your sales targets, feed your family, keep your job?

It’s not so hard to pick out those in the first camp from those who stand firmly ring-fenced in the second. Most of us have a foot in both because we know that a genuine approach will mean the bottom line takes care of itself.

As marketers we need to articulate the values our organisations stand behind clearly. We need to embody them in every client interaction. If these values are aligned with our own it will come naturally. If they are not, then it’s time to think again about who we represent.

People do business with people they like but people continue to do business with those they trust.

That’s why Netbyte // Digital Agency is about long-term relationships. Our clients retain us because they know they can trust us to come up with marketing solutions that work. They can see the difference our team makes to their bottom line and we provide reports to measure this.

If we sound like the kind of agency you’d like to work with, please Contact Us here.