Unfortunately, we live in a time where we find it difficult to trust each other. Trust in sellers and companies has declined as previous collaborations may not have lived up to the expectations you had and that were painted by the seller or the company did not live up to the expectations you had and that were painted by the seller or the company. In addition, the internet is full of fake news on a daily basis. In other words, we live in a post-trust world where it is not enough to advertise that we are experts in something or that we have the best solution. Especially if you are a start-up company with a short history, what does it take to gain the trust of potential customers and increase sales? Below are 5 sharp and concrete tips.
- Make customer case!
- It is your own existing customers who should tell your new potential customers that you are really good at what you do. Make the customer cases visible on the website and show how your salespeople can use them in the pre-sales process.
- Reviews and short testimonials
- If you have customers who don't have time to do a longer customer case, you can always ask them to give a shorter review, for example on Facebook, Google review (Google My Business) or similar. Another tip is to link these reviews to the website so that they are visible to visitors.
- Share your knowledge!
- Every day we search the internet for knowledge that can help us improve our personal and business lives. The companies that help us improve are the ones we trust too. But don't think that just because a person has read a blog post or downloaded a guide/whitepaper that it doesn't mean you're building trust right away. It's about slowly but surely building trust by sharing knowledge on an ongoing basis until the potential customer is ready to make a purchase.
- Transparency and honesty
- By being 100% open and honest about how you work with your customers, you gain trust. Tell us what you are not good at and what you are good at. If you get negative reviews, (which all businesses do) don't delete them but respond to them and offer a solution. This will gain you more trust with your potential customers with your potential customers.
- Educate your customers
- Tell your potential customers that you are more than happy to train your customers during the course of the collaboration. Feel free to share your tips, tricks and perhaps secrets. The more your clients know, the better clients they will be. You will also be seen as "the good guys" in the business.
Summary on how to build trust and increase B2B sales
Don't forget that it's your potential customers who decide when they've gained your trust or not. The only thing you can do is to maximise the opportunities for this to happen. With this in mind, it's important that you don't try to sell on the first contact. For example, if someone has downloaded a guide or white paper for the first time, don't call them the same day and try to sell them something straight away. You can certainly follow up but it should be with the aim of tuning in and opening up for more sharing of knowledge. At least that's my opinion, let the potential customer revel in as much knowledge, reviews and customer cases as possible and over a longer period of time. Then trust will be built and sales will increase.Want help creating kick ass customer cases? Then feel free to book a meeting with us :-)BOOK MEETING
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