How To Gain Trust For Your Brand.
Dr. Michael Barbera, chief behavioral officer at Clicksuasion Labs, is an award-winning consumer psychologist and business strategist. His clients include Fortune 500 companies, and have appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Michael’s business psychology practice includes consumer behavior, emotions, and experiences, as well as social psychology, decision-making, behavioral economics, and behavioral finance. He shares his evidence-based insights on the Clicksuasion podcast and as a dynamic TEDx presenter. Michael is a celebrated keynote speaker, and has addressed more than 200,000 people on four continents, earning more than 350,000 views online.
Trust is complicated. There is real trust and perceived trust.
There are 7 variables that we like to look at in building trust
being remarkable
experiential
transparency
reciprocity
utility
social status
timeliness
We always want to be the person who is known, liked and trusted. Of the 7, the one that we as humans usually go for first is social status.
If we asked people if things should be inclusive or exclusive, most would say things should be inclusive. But if we were to measure that same metric anonymously, we can find that people prefer to be in exclusive clubs and groups….so if we can put a bit of exclusivity to those who we work with and network with, it gives social status or perceived social status to the other person.
It’s hard to niche down, but I like to look at this in an academic model….you get an undergrad degree...you’re a subject matter expert in a large broad field. You get a masters degree, it’s a little more niche. And then as you earn that PhD, you know that you’re specialized in that little corner of that field. As you get more niche, you may exclude a larger audience, but you can command a higher fee and a higher brand equity from those who are willing to work with you.
At the bottom of the funnel is trust.
You’ve narrowed it down to two applicants. Person A knows everything about the position, the organization, absolute rock star, they can start tomorrow with no training needed. But person A is a jerk. Then person B knows a little bit about the organization, a little bit about the job, needs some training, needs some hand holding, probably going make a few mistakes along the way. But person B is a really nice person. 1. Which person would you prefer to sit next to on a flight for 5 hours? 2. Which person would you prefer to hire? There is no right or wrong answer but most people would choose person B because we want to work with those that we know, like and trust.
Be relateable, be authentic, be transparent, show that you’re not perfect.
Show us behind the scenes.
Reach into that ‘normal’ thing, the 5 things that you do every day that your clients or customers may not be aware of and share that. Show your B roll. It improves your brand equity.
One of the most persuasive things is to show other people are doing it too
Be remarkable : a pink painted or tie dye painted van pulls into your neighbors driveway. 5 people jump out dressed in pink or tie dye overalls….
The average person in North America sees about 30,000 brand impressions every day. As consumers, we don’t have the financial resources to give every one of these brands a dollar, so what makes you stand out? What makes you memorable above the noise?
Find little ways that make yourself memorable. The outfit you wear, the way you communicate, the story you tell, the way you engage with other people. One way I do it is by video communication.
Mistakes are actively going for the sale. As soon as the conversation goes to a sale or a perceived sale or a place where I believe you are looking for nothing other than a sale, at that point the relationship goes to a place of transaction. Does this benefit me whatsoever and do I want to continue this friendship? I believe ask for it or the answer is always ‘no’ but I believe reversing it. Let the other person ask you for those services. Once they know you, like you, trust you, they’ll want to work with you.
If you’re looking for a ‘speaker’ you’re looking for somebody to fill a slot. But if they say ‘you’re the subject matter expert in X and you’ve been here and there. Can you tell your story?’ They are hiring you because you have something to share. If you can show the value in what you’ve done, or experiences, it makes people want to work with you because of what you’ve done. Not because of what you can do.
If you mis-step: be transparent, own your mistake. don’t use the word ‘sorry’ that word goes in one ear and out the other. It holds no value. Say 'I apologize' or 'my apologies.' Same thing with Thank You. Say 'I’m grateful' or 'I appreciate.'
Time, patience and relevancy. You can engage with your audience every single day, once a month or once a year as long as the content and the value you are providing them is relevant to them. If you’re trying to engage with someone just for the sake of engagement and its not relevant to them, they are going to believe that you’re pushing sales or that it’s not important to them and they are going to stop communicating with you.
Try and communicate with them on their preferred platform, but multi-channel communication is more likely to drive toward trust
Give space and time in between. Don’t try and do everything all at once because then you lose relevancy to that person. If you have content you can share, share the content that is relevant to that person. Relevancy is a very open term because each person has different objectives so try to find the content or frame that content that matches that person’s wants and needs
Who is the client today and who do they want to be?
You’re more realatble when you have similar experiences.
Rule #1 don’t fabricate stories.
I’m going to give some hard truth. I really don’t think you have a choice when it comes to being the face of your brand.
Be authentic, be yourself, be real, be a friend.
Change the questions you ask, change the conversations you’re in. Make it more personal.
Backwards plan.
Company Website: clicksuasion.com
Personal LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mbarberausa
mike@clicksuasion
Music: Ariza Music Productions