What Are You Doing to Grow Your Circle of Trust?
I just read a post by John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing that really hit home. He said,
“Most organizations focus their attention on growing their customer base. The real focus should be on growing your circle of trust.”
I got to thinking that the acquisition costs to start from scatch to identify and then take them through several stages of your selling cycle to get them to try your product are pretty high. He made the point to have you think about the last time you purchased something. Most likely you were influenced by the reviews online or by countless others singing the praises of that product (sort of a testimonial).
He said that basically we fail to understand that the bigger your circle of trust, the bigger your business potential. Here are some of his suggestions to build your circle:
- Tell stories – everyone loves a compelling story.
- Ratings matter – decisions are made on how other people rate your product.
- Blog comments matter – this type of engagement conversations is influential when you read all the threads.
- Social fans are important – whether it’s Google+, Facebook or recommendations on LinkedIn.
Hopefully we’ll all take pause and consider John’s thoughts.