by Randall CraigFiled in: Make It Happen Tipsheet, Blog, Marketing, Thought Leadership, TrustTagged as: Building professional relationships
Search for “Trust” on Google, and you will get 1.4 billion references. Search for it in your thesaurus, and you’ll get synonyms such as Confidence, Assurance, Credence, Truth, Reliance on integrity, and many more.
I would like to suggest another definition: Trust is the currency of transactions. Or said another way, at every touchpoint — for every transaction and for every interaction — trust either increases or decreases.
Consider these scenarios:
Scenario one: Someone you barely know asks you for a favor. When this happens, your mental calculus is quick: Must I do it because it’s my job? Why are they asking? How long will it take? Do I owe them a favor? Do I want them to owe me a favor later?
Scenario two: Your best friend or closest colleague asks you for a favor. 99% of the time, if you can do it, you will do it with no questions asked, and no mental calculus. And you won’t add the favor to your invisible ledger, to be accounted for in the future. The stronger the relationship, the more you are willing to do.
So how does one move from one scenario to the other? Here’s the skinny:
At every interaction, trust can be increased… and the relationship with it. More “transactions”, and more “transactions” with a great experience, means increased trust and less calculus.
Building trust requires three things: removing trust killers, improving the experience at each touchpoint, and increasing the number of transactions. This week, work on one.
Marketing Insight: This is absolutely true for marketers, even at a micro-level. Consider your blog: Is it too salesy? (Remove trust killers.) How often does it come out? (Increase the number of transactions.) Does your blog add value? (Improve the experience at each touchpoint)
Related post: Using Personas to Understand Trust, Trust Killers
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