MJ Sterling

Here's another short report I wrote for my fellow Warriors, this is about common core values - mainly trust, and how values can be used to create instant rapport.

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The values you convey through your marketing material can make or break your business. Very few marketers exploit this technique because it is so difficult to pin down the values of any given market.

However it’s still important to identify the values of your niche to create more sales. Because we each work in different niches, the values of each market will be different.

So in order to overcome this problem I’m going to cut right to the core of what makes us, as individuals tick and address the shared values that most people uphold.

It’s not easy to define what a value exactly is, but we know they are beliefs held by individual or group.

As marketers, it’s our job to connect with our customers at a deeper level so they perceive us as a respected advisor and friend. The easiest way to do this is to share their values.

Because values can be both conscious and subconscious, they can be influenced in a variety of ways, often via external forces such as celebrities, peer pressure, the media and family.

The purpose of this report is not to change our customers’ values or to pretend to share the same values, the purpose of this report is to examine common values that each of us, regardless of our target market or industry, we respect and uphold.

Once we are aware of common values, that many people share, we can then reflect back those values through our sales copy or videos, to show our market that we understand and respect the same core issues as they.

This is a very powerful way to build rapport.

We simply show our customers that we are on the same side as they, and we are all working towards the same goals, and wish to achieve them through similar methods, based on the shared values we uphold.

In doing this we are creating empathy with our customers, allowing them to see us in a positive light that creates a synergy between us. We have now created a sense of belonging in our customers’ mind – and that sense of belonging in itself is another powerful value that many share.

In turn this leads to increase rapport and as a result, more sales.
The most powerful value that we can reflect, not just as marketers, but as decent human beings, is trust.

I’ll focus more on building trust in a moment, but other common and powerful values that most people uphold include:

• Challenges
• Desire
• Empathy
• Enjoyment
• Fairness
• Freedom
• Happiness
• Honesty
• Independence
• Modesty
• Power
• Trust

Here we will focus on building trust with our customers, in a practical way.
But first we need to spread out across the web and gain visibility and credibility. By using third party sources, beyond our own website, we can create a sense of perceived trust in our market place.

A few well placed press releases can boost the overall perception of a business, by potential customers.

Offering free articles to notable bloggers can lend increased credibility and trust to your brand or product. Also teaming up with other recognised leaders in your market will improve your perceived trust when customers research you.

Here are few things that you can do now to build long term trust.

Keep your promises
It sounds obvious, but when making claims about your product be honest and resist the temptation to include “best case scenario outcomes”. Do not build up customer expectations to unrealistic levels as this will lead to disappointment, a breakdown in trust and the loss of future sales.

Keep it simple
Avoid using jargon and unfamiliar terms that potential customers might not be aware of, without explaining their full meaning and purpose. This can be an immediate and costly turn off. Keep your message simple and straight to the point.

Use humour
A simple joke that relates to your product or market place can overcome the most hardened of sceptics. We all enjoy a laugh and placing our customers into a positive state of mind can help increase trust and also help you stand out from the crowd.

Build a relationship
As with all relationships, they take time and building one with your customer base is no different. Frequent emails to your customers that offer something of interest or value will speed up the trust building process, and can reward you for years to come.

These simple but effective methods can reap the rewards of life long, happy customers that keep coming back for more.

Thank you for reading this and I hope I’ve inspired a few fresh ideas.

Tonio Smith

They are indeed some
great nuggets of information
that he has provided in the
above report.

My suggestion to everyone
is take what you can from
anything you do in life and
build upon it use it to your
advantage.

yst

To elaborate on humor, I know of one guy that leaves a calendar with every prospect that states 12 reasons that someone should do business with them said by past customers. Some of the reasons are funny and its quite interesting.

www.blog.beevok.com. Want to get your company profiled? Drop a comment in one of the articles.

MJ Sterling

Thanks guys,

That's a good idea about the calendar.. might try something like that myself.

Dennis Gaskill

Good post, MJ. I would add that self-deprecating humor is the best kind to use. People like it when you poke fun of yourself, but some folks are not so keen on humor that pokes fun of someone else.

MJ Sterling

I agree Dennis.. also the removal of ego is important and something I think many overlook when trying to convey a message of wealth. What better way to remove the ego than to laugh at yourself.

Dennis Gaskill

That's a good point, too. More easily understood than implemented sometimes.

acms

To MJ Sterling, thank-you for your great tips. To continue on from keeping your promises, I must agree that sincerity is a very important thing to me. Trust is very reliant on integrity.

E-supreme

Very good tips and adopting this approach can definitely increase sales!

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Dan Bainbridge

Very interesting read! Trust is really important in my niche (since the buyer can't hear any audible words) and we try and build trust in a few simple ways:
- Down to earth writing style
- Setting realistic expectations - i.e. the product won't work instantly, or overnight, and it is just an aid rather than something to do everything for you.

Beyond that I think it's really important to give good customer service - to get back to people within a couple of hours and show there is a real human at the other end who is happy to help.

If you treat people right, answer their questions and give information where you can, even if it is not always what they want to hear then you will build trust.

MJ Sterling

I gotta totally agree with customer service.

It's a huge factor in building trust for repeat businesses, I pay an over the odds price for my hosting each month - not because of the product but because of their customer service.

AchievementSPC

I began reading the Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey (Jr) and was a little disappointed. Seemed like he really tried to hard on his first book.

What you've presented are great key pieces of information on building trust. I was having a discussion on trust with a business owner. I used some of the theories in Covey's book on the relationship with cost and trust. Lack of trust more costs, etc. He does not 'trust' his employees and from what I've observed, he has lost alot of money because of it.

It is an interesting correlation!

Greg D

Thank you for the 2nd post.
Great read. Great thoughts.
You stimulated me to refine and fine tune strategies of approach with both existing and future customers.

aaizenm

MJ, Thank you very much.