Flip the Trust Switch!
Overcoming customer fear is the key to growth.
Jim Stein
Published Date: May 17, 2023
What if it was as easy as flipping a switch to get your prospective customers (Prospects) to trust your company? You simply reach for the trust switch, flip it to the ON position, and your Prospect immediately changes from someone who is claim-fatigued, close-minded and skeptical into someone who trusts you and your company and is open-minded and attentive to the ideas you’re about to present. Sounds like a dream world, right? Actually, it should be a reality for more than two-thirds of your Prospects.
The Survival Instinct of Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear
Why the mistrust in the first place? Fear. It’s the reason Prospects don’t trust your company. They don’t have direct experience using your company. They recognize they don’t have expertise in your field, plus they’re inundated with claims from your competitors—claims they know may be exaggerated or even false. Naturally, during the shopping process, they fear getting bad quality, they fear you may not price fairly or you’ll extract overcharges, they fear you’ll make promises and not keep them, and they fear your team may not have the expertise to deal with their exact needs.
This fear of the unknown is actually healthy for Prospects because it prevents them from jumping at any offer made to them. On the negative side, it closes their minds to your presentation of how your company will deliver quality, keep its promises, be fair with pricing and take an expert approach to their work. Even though you do a good job of differentiating your company from your competitors, their lack of trust prevents their brains from fully seeing and embracing how good your company performs. It’s as if they’re wearing dark glasses that shield their brains from absorbing your company’s track record and advantages.
Flip Your Company’s High-Trust Switch ON
Your solution is to flip your company’s High-Trust Switch ON by reducing fear and gaining trust. Do this as early as possible in the Prospect/Company interaction so the resulting higher trust helps each Prospect see and believe your key points that follow within that and future interactions.
The first interaction usually occurs on the web or through customer referrals. That means Prospects gain or lose trust in your company before they even meet you. Flip on the High-Trust Switch on your website and in search so Prospects believe the content on your site and trust your company right from the start.
Related Blogs
Elevate Your Group’s Status—Add to Your Members’ Sense of Belonging
Jim Stein
Think about your past, present and future customer group. Each member belongs to their own family, friend and work groups. Improving their sense of belonging in your group influences members (your potential customers) in their other groups. Here’s how you can do it.
Helpful Expertise #1: Attitude
Jim Stein
Think about these two words: Helpful Expertise. You’re most Helpful when you have a great Attitude, you’re very Responsive and you Personalize your communications to the individual customer. Your Expertise shines when you truly understand the specifics of the job and are able to provide expert Insights based on this understanding.
Latest Blogs
The Deciding Factor
Jim Stein
Your potential customers’ brains are constantly absorbing signals from both your company and your competitors and then using these signals as a basis to choose. Each market signal that your company sends moves their “preference for your company” needle up or down. One of your signals will be the Deciding Factor: the one that causes a Prospect to pick your company.
Force Success
Jim Stein
Ask most company managers and they’ll tell you the key to satisfying customers is to “do what the customer wants.” Although this is a reasonable answer, I believe in adding to this by embracing the philosophy of “do what the customer needs.” Although it takes extra time to educate a customer and merge their wants with newly learned needs, it leads to a more satisfied customer and it’s the right thing to do.