Trust Based Marketing For Profits Today - Part 1 of 3

Introduction
Trust-Based Marketing is the way to get all the clients and profits you could ever want in today's economy.

"You see, what is lacking today is not so much cash flow but rather credibility."

Businesses, like people, do not want to risk when their fears are stimulated and the only way to open their wallets is through trust.

This 3-Part article on trust based marketing is adapted from the writings of Andrew Neitlich.

Trust-Based Marketing overcomes the distrust factor of overly-slick marketing and is, instead, based on establishing your credibility in the marketplace. Trust-based marketing requires an initial investment of time and energy up front, but but reaps a RICH HARVEST enabling your business to land all the clients and projects you want within six months to a year. Best of all, trust-based marketing doesn’t cost a lot to implement.

The Fundamental Problem with Traditional Marketing
Traditional approaches to marketing suffer from a fundamental flaw: they PUSH your services and products at the prospect. As a result, prospects are easily turned off. Face it, they’re sick and tired of receiving hundreds of marketing pitches every day.

Whether you design a business Website that describes your services, use the sales gimmicks that most sales training courses teach, or depend on Pay Per Click to get noticed, you will face the following problems if you pursue traditional marketing strategies:

1. Prospects avoid you, because they don’t want to deal with yet another vendor or salesperson.
2. Prospects don’t always give you straight answers about moving forward.
3. You end up competing on price alone, instead of getting sole source deals. Your value goes down in the customer's eyes and your service gravitates towards being a commodity!
4. You spend more and more money on advertising campaigns that produce less and less results.
5. You feel frustrated, because you have to go through the indignity of pitching your services and skills only to receive rejection when you are sure that you offer a terrific solution.

Trust-Based Marketing Gets Inside the Prospect’s Head

There is another way than pushing yourself at customers. It has to do with attracting new business instead. Before we unveil it, consider what your prospects are probably thinking when they realize they need to invest in a new Initative, Image or Web Site. I will use Information Technology market (IT) as an example. When you get inside the prospect's head, here is what is typically going on:

1. I don’t want to hire an IT professional, but I have to. This makes me feel ignorant and vulnerable, because I need help and can’t solve my own problem.
2. I have no way of knowing if the person I hire is really the right person for the job.
3. I hear many stories about people being burned when they hire IT professionals.
4. Why can’t IT consultants speak a language I can understand?
5. I don’t care about technology. I just want to get business results. Technology is the means, not the end, and I wish these people would understand this fact.
6. This is going to be expensive, and I worry about not getting enough return for my investment.

The Root Issue IS TRUST

Underlying each of these thoughts is a common message. When it all boils down, your prospects are really saying, “I want to hire somebody I can trust who will give me results I can trust.” Therefore, developing trust becomes the key to attracting new business deals.

You have established trust when you meet four criteria:

1. Your prospect is familiar with you and with what you do.
2. Your prospect perceives you to be an expert in your field.
3. Your prospect believes that you understand his or her specific issues, and can solve them.
4. Your prospect likes you enough to want to work with you.

Our next post will cover the enormous benefits of trust-based marketing.

Got trust? Call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587 for trust-savvy approaches both in print communications, professional web site design, and social medial strategies.