It’s a Matter of Trust

Elinor Stutz, www.smoothsale.net

“Building business is all about establishing credibility and trust,” asserts Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, and author of Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results. Stutz adds,

With the development of social media, we no longer get word out about our business solely in local neighborhoods but instead we message worldwide. Posting online for all to see is quick and easy, but more than ever, to build relationships and trust, your words, actions and deeds all need to be in alignment with integrity.

Whether you network in person or online, use video and blogs or tweets and posts, others will quickly notice whether you are attempting to serve the needs of your clientele or just serve yourself. Within seconds, people make a snap decision about whether to ignore your communication or take action on it. Contacts will help spread your marketing messages when they receive useful information and sense your integrity. Your intended audience will ask to connect for further conversation.

Check your client list to see how you are scoring in this regard. What are your percentages for returning clients, referrals, and testimonials received? These results provide the measuring mechanism for how successful you have been in developing trust throughout your marketing efforts.

You need to know just how far you are willing to go for business and when to put on the brakes. How do you wish to be remembered? What type of role model do you wish to be for your family and/or community? Are you willing to bend the truth to make a sale? Your words, actions, and deeds become part of your brand. What you stand for, provide to clients, and uniquely deliver, should be apparent in each and every communication.