10 ways to build trust in your business. By Charlie Cook
You wouldn’t buy a car if you didn’t think it could get you
home. And you wouldn’t purchase it from a dealer you thought
was robbing you blind on the price and might not stand
behind it if the engine fell out as you drove it off the
lot.
Before making a purchase from you, buyers need to trust that
your products and services will do what they are supposed
to. Does your marketing help establish the trust necessary
to convince prospects to buy from you? If you’re struggling
to attract clients and customers, use the following tactics
to convert prospects to clients.
1. GET TESTIMONIALS
No matter how great your credentials are or how much
experience you’ve had, people pay more attention to what
OTHERS have to say about you.
Pick up the phone and call your customers to ask what they
thought of your product or service, what they liked about it
and how it was helpful. Edit their comments, get their
permission to use the comments and then feature these
testimonials in your marketing materials.
2. USE ARTICLES INSTEAD OF ADS
We have come to distrust ads and to believe what we read in
published articles. Invest your time in writing articles to
establish yourself as an expert. If you run ads, include
testimonials in them.
3. GIVE SOMETHING AWAY
When you give something to people, regardless of the cost,
they are more likely to trust you and return the favor by
buying something from you. Use an ebook, article, workshop
or free demonstration to build trust.
4. GET REFERRALS
When you need a new doctor, lawyer, plumber, carpenter or a
place to eat you ask a friend for a referral. You trust the
recommendations of people you know, and in fact, that’s how
the majority of people find jobs. Don’t wait for the
occasional referral to come in spontaneously; implement a
proactive system to generate referrals.
5. EXCHANGE ENDORSEMENTS
Team up with a business you trust that also targets your
market. Get them to include an endorsement of your products
and services in their marketing and do the same for them.
While a personal referral is ideal, an endorsement is a
close second. This tactic can double your marketing reach at
zero cost.
6. GIVE EXAMPLES
Tell a story instead of making impersonal and dramatic
claims of what you or your product does. Use case studies to
tell what you did for whom and the difference it made in
their life or their business.
7. PERSONALIZE YOUR MARKETING
Its a common misperception that to sound credible your
marketing should be dry and impersonal. People do business
with people. You need to help prospects get to know you and
trust you. Let your passion and personality come across in
your marketing as well as your professionalism. Include a
picture of yourself, with a smile, in a prominent place on
the first page of your marketing materials.
8. REDUCE PERCEIVED RISK
Buyers’ biggest concern is how well your product or service
will perform. Providing a guarantee may help, but in most
cases its not going to make the sale. Clarify the value you
provide and state your commitment to seeing that your
clients are not only happy, but ecstatic about your product
and services.
9. MAKE CONTACT EASY
If you want clients to get in touch with you, show them how.
Put your phone number at the top of your marketing materials
and tell them to call. When you call them, give them your
phone number again at the end of the conversation and tell
them to call. If you have a web site, put a contact form at
the bottom of your home page.
10. STAY IN TOUCH
The people you see and talk to on a regular basis are
usually the ones you trust the most. Communication isn’t the
only ingredient for developing trust, but it is a critical
one. If you sell services or high end products, a personal
phone call is one of the best ways to answer prospects
questions, and to establish trust. Contact your prospects
and clients regularly and get feedback on what they are
concerned about.
You want to convert prospects to clients and clients to
repeat clients. Use these ten marketing tactics to build
trust and you’ll find more prospects buying your products
and services.
The Chef’s Dilemma
I have a real dilemma.
This Sunday Lunch was a record for us. 68 covers, crazy!
Sadly, one customer was not happy. She had been served a treacle rolly polly that was not quite up to par. It was one of the last pieces on the roll and was a little dry and hard.
I’m not shifting the blame here, even though I do ask the waiting staff to prepare the sweets when I’m busy, I should over see everything that goes out of my kitchen so I take full responsibility.
As you can imagine, after so many covers, my chef’s whites were a little less than white and with no clean whites available in the kitchen I had to choose between, asking John, (very capable front of house), to apologize to the un-happy customer on my behalf or to talk to her myself.
I chose to talk to her myself, dirty whites and all.
I wonder what would you have done? I’d love your comments.
Incidentally, we didn’t charge her for her meal so she went home happy in the end.
I’ve had another inspirational dream…
Last night I had a dream that I can’t remember but it woke me up and left me with a poem in my head. The last time this happened to me I blogged about it. You can read that post here.
This time my poem was short but, I feel it was one of those moments….
When someone that’s around you does something that astounds you, listen, look and learn, it soon will be your turn!
I don’t know about you but I do this all the time…I’ll read, see or hear someone say something that is really profound and I put it in my little brain bank and use it for inspiration.
One book that changed my life was “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. I now use his philosophy in everything I do.
He says: THE SLIGHT EDGE IS EASY TO DO-and it is easy not to do. Now, I’m defining EASY here as simply “something you can do.” The Slight Edge philosophy is based on doing things that are easy-little disciplines, which, done consistently over time, add up to the biggest accomplishments. The problem is that all those things that are easy to do are just as easy not to do.
Why is something easy not to do? Because if you don’t do it, it won’t kill you today. But, that simple, seemingly insignificant error in judgment, compounded over time, will kill you, destroy you, ruin your chances for success, and demolish your dreams. You can count on it.
Somewhere along the way in your life, you became unwilling to take baby steps. You lost faith in the universal truth that the simple little disciplines done again and again over time would move the mightiest mountains.
There’s an old saying that says, A journey of a thousands miles always starts with a single step.
So if you are trying to lose weight and you say…just one piece of cake won’t kill me!
Or you know some little things you need to do to improve your business but….you’re gonna start tomorrow…think again!
Pat Sutton – The Web Celeb Builder
Confessions of a Blogger.
At last my official blog website is actually finished. My intention of blogging for a living has become a reality.
Ok, what next?
The first thing I need to do is to go back over the archives and delete all my earlier muses.
In the early days, as is usual for blog virgins, my impression of a blog was something that no sane person would ever read or be interested in. So my first blogs were indulgent, grammatically terrible and some were even downright silly.
But as my hand hovers over the delete button I hesitate….wait a minute…this is like throwing out an old photograph album.
There’s the one about my dog Sadie, now gone, who was miraculously cured of cancer by a Spirit healer. And the time a had my cat trimmed and she looked like one of those nodding animals you put in the back window of your car.
Then there are the feelings I had when starting a new job or moving house.
I recorded my first days on Facebook and how cheeky people were, asking to be “my friend” when they didn’t even know me!
Of-course, I would hate for all you guys with discerning tastes to read these old blogs but I am definately not going to dispose of them. I’m going to print them up and stick them into a scrap book for posterity.
Maybe one day one of my grand daughters will find them and will read them to their children…how strange it will be to them…how old fashioned it will seem!
This time of Ipods, webcams and Twitter will be an archaic, bygone age to them!
I wish I had written more!
Pat’s officail blog: http://www.InternetMillionaireSecrets.biz
Selling to the Taxi Driver!
You know, one of the easiest things to do on the internet is to assume that people are not being honest and that they are only talking to you because they have something to sell. Who do you think is to blame for that?
We are of-course!
Have you noticed on the social networks how many people make a connection and then imediately try to sell you something. I am the first one to admit that that was my tactic when I first started social marketing on the web.
It’s like getting into a Taxi and saying hello to the driver and in your next breath introducing your product to him.
If you were that taxi driver, what would you think?
If, however, you have a long drive with him and you allow him to tell you about his family and his gripes and likes. You could chat to him about how busy he has been and you could comment on how clever he is to remember all the obscure places, he will eventually feel connected to you. He will then, more than likely, ask you what it is that you do. You will then have the opportunity to tell him about your business or product. Remember though, it is still not the best time to sell to him until you have told him about yourself. You need him to see you as a normal, kind, human person who he can trust and that he can see as the type of person he would want to buy from.
I am not saying that taxi drivers are likely customers but I am sure you know what I mean?
If you really want to find people to buy into your product or business, you must first help them to buy into you.
Your online profile should be the best you can possible make it and your picture should show you smiling and looking approachable. It’s important that you do not come over too professional, you should seem to your prospective customer like someone who could be living next door to him.
Your resume is important but remember not all of us have a great academic education, many of us are self taught, as am I, do not be ashamed of that.
Many of your prospective customers will, themselves, not have traditional training but some of the best entrepreneurs have started just like that.
Jim Rohn, the founder of Herbalife, as an example, started selling and made a fortune out of health products because of his mother’s enthusiasm for healthy foods not because he had a fantastic academic career.
Pat Sutton is a mentor with LifePath Unlimited
http://patsutton.lifepathpro.com
Viral Marketing is the new name for “Word of Mouth”.
What is real Viral Marketing?
It is campaigns that use all the people you know to pass on to all the people they know who then pass on to all the people they know and so on and so on.
It is linked exclusively to the digital world but I see it as a new twist on an old marketing technique, namely “Word of Mouth”.
But do remember, if it ain’t good then no one will pass it on!
What we have on the internet that we don’t have in the offline world is the ability to contact many people at the same time and know that they have actually seen our offering.
The internet has made it possible to pass information from person to person at practically no financial cost although be warned that the cost in time and effort can be quite significant.
So here are a few tips for items that may interest people enough to encourage them to pass on.
- Tell a great funny story. Be sure to tell something that is generic and not sexist, in other words something that will not alienate half your audience.
- Pass on some great inspirational quotes, don’t forget to credit the authors.
- A good article. This can generate millions of readers over time so make sure that the subject is “ever green”.
- Give something away like a free e-book.
- Complement someone, they will love it and may well add you to their website as a case study or at least re-tweet your comment, this is a great way to leverage other people’s marketing efforts.
- Remember, people buy from people, make yourself interesting and give people the opportunity to look into you deeper to get to know you; they are then far more likely to buy from you!
One word of caution, people often dive into Social Media and Viral Marketing just to sell. This is not the way to do it, you must “give” something to “get” something, the same applies in everything you do whether it be online or offline.
If at first it doesn’t succeed…….change it and try again.
There is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different…Einstein
Of-course, what ever it is that you send out don’t forget to add your bio or at least your contact details as a footnote.
Pat Sutton,
http://www.patsutton.com/
Join PeopleString it is a FREE way to earn money from the internet by doing what you are already doing!
This is a brand new business and if ever anything is likely to go Viral it is this business and you could be in at the beginning!
Do your customers find you attractive?
Does your business profile “you” first or your product first?
People buy from people! You should not think that showcasing your business on a website changes the rules. If you want people to buy from you then you need to make sure that they see you. They need to see you as an expert and as a leader. These are the principals of “Attraction Marketing” it is where you are leading not selling. You need to give value and be of service every step of the way to create relationships and life long, referring customers.
Don’t be afraid to show your passion in your product or service. You are “magnetically attractive” to people when you show your passion for your work.
So what do you need to do to attract people enough to make them buy from you:
1. You need at least one great picture of yourself, but even better, pictures of you with your dog or family and friends. Your prospects need to relate to you as a normal happy person.
2. You need to lead them to a solution for their needs, not sell to them. You do this by example, by showing them where you were before and where you are now. Were there any obstacles you had that hindered your own success? It is almost certain that your prospect will relate to them. You need to show them how you overcame those obstacles.
3. “You” is the magic word, for every time you talk about yourself you need to talk about what you can do for your customer. Example wording could be, “YOU” can change your life… “YOU” will gain more income… “YOU” have come here because… I will help “YOU”…..
4. Utilise Social Media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. It has made the world smaller and much easier to access! It has made consumers feel more personally connected. Giving your business a personal face allows you to stand apart in the market.
5. They say that everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. Now with the internet you can create your own fame but remember, be honest, be open and have integrity and you will go a long way. Pat Sutton
Pat Sutton – http://www.InternetMillionaireSecrets.biz
How’s your Verbal Business card?
The Breakfast Meeting!
We all know the scenario! You are sitting over your breakfast at some un-godly hour trying to hide the yawn when someone suggests that it would be a good idea to “introduce ourselves” to the other attendees.
A sort of “elevator pitch”. It means you need to explain what you do in about 1 minute in a polished clear manner.
In the social business world it is important that you can deliver a clear verbal marketing message that can create an important first impression and will attract new clients.
This I call your Verbal Business Card.
You should practice your verbal business card so that it’s virtually word perfect but at the same time you need to be able to deliver it with a natural flow.
So where do you start to create a great verbal business card?
Ask yourself these six questions:
1. What is my name?
2. What is my title?
3. What is my business name?
4. What is my product or service?
4. What is the benefit of my service or product?
5. How would that help you, (the delegates)?
6. How would you contact me?
You could also mention other things like, where you’re based, how long you have been established, how many people in your organisation etc. but the important ones are the first six.
Here is an example of my Verbal Business Card.
“Good morning! My name is Pat Sutton and I am The CEO of Niche Media Marketing where we build and design great websites and also work with businesses to improve their web presence. I am also an Authorised Representative of LifePath Unlimited, an extraordinary home-based business opportunity with products and beliefs that embace the Law of Attraction and personal development.
If you would like to hear more about my business you can talk to me today or if you pop over to my website at patsutton.com you will find my contact details and more about my business on the “about Pat” page.”
Don’t worry if it goes on a bit, I have never seen anyone cut short while introducing themselves. The other delegates will probably be annoyed that they hadn’t prepared their “Verbal Business Card” better.
Pat Sutton
see: http://www.patsutton.com
Internet Marketing Specialist
Authorised Representative of Lifepath Unlimited
see: http://www.ThisBusinessRocks.co.uk
Don’t be too clever if you want to win customers!
When I first started looking into Network Marketing I had to kiss a lot of expensive frogs.
I feel though, that my experiences are valuable to my team and to anyone else who wants to listen to me who is in, or thinking about joining a Network Marketing business. So with that in mind I am going to write a few vitally important tips that I believe will make a massive difference in the way you work with new prospects.
- Don’t be too clever – one of the things that often went through my head when I was talking to prospective sponsors was…..
“He sounds so much smarter than me; I’ll never be able to do that!”
If you show too much expertise then your prospect will think that it is too big a mountain to climb. It is a natural instinct to doubt oneself.
What your prospect wants is success and financial freedom and at this time it can be seen as a distant dream and hearing from someone who they believe has so many more skills than they have may make that dream too unbelievable. - Do ask for a phone number on your marketing pages. Let’s face it, if they are afraid to have a conversation with you on the telephone then how will they have the courage to pick up the phone to their own new prospects.
- When you call prospects, don’t sell to them; find out if they are the type of people you would like to work with. Find out if they have the personality to actually make their business work. Listen to their story.
- Tell them the truth, be honest and make it clear about what will be required from them.
- It is important that you don’t make them feel that just anyone will do. Make them feel special!
- Have the integrity to say “no” to them if you really believe that they will be wasting their money.
- If they still want to sign with you then make sure that you allow more time to support them.
- Of-course, you must let them know that you will help them but be honest that they will eventually have to stand on their own two feet. They will thank you for your honesty!