Know, Like, But there’s no way I’m going to trust you Part Three
We’ve been talking about the tried and true, tested through time foundation of sales.
Read about part 1 here and part 2 here. And this train is rolling with part three.
TRUST cannot be underestimated when it comes to business. And it’s an easy enough concept to understand. But implementing it is what fucks some people up.
Ways trust is built:
You do what you say you are going to do. Period. That’s step one. If you say you’re going to deliver on Monday, fucking break your neck to make sure you do. If you are shipping in two weeks and your mother goes into the hospital, open that convo before it’s too late, but don’t make it a habit.
I struggled with this in the beginning. It happens to all of us who are just getting our bearings in business. But the faster you make that a focus, the faster you will earn a name for yourself. (Incidentally, you will quickly learn not to fucking over book yourself by contracting for the same delivery dates. Or you won’t and you’ll be getting up with me at 2:30am.)
Your website has to look like you give a fuck about your business. You MUST invest in a theme and the DIY knowledge or a designer worth a shit if you want your 100 trust points for an up-to-date webdesign. Seriously. Because if you’re riding around talking about six figures and you have a DIY site that people can tell is DIY? You’re fucked.
I get bootstrapping. I do. I did it. But the FIRST thing I invested in was pro pics and the second was that Magic-Maker Dani. She’s done every site I’ve had since then. (The caveat here: Before you go and invest in these things, KNOW your why first.)Your copy has to sound like you’ve put some thought into their struggles and dreams. Throwing up words that are found on every single website in your niche means you either A) don’t know them as well as you claim to with your 6-figure months on top of months experience or B) you just don’t care enough to try to talk to them like you mean it.
3b. Also, the words you use can shred your credibility to pieces. If you go over the top and your branding doesn’t align, they’ll not believe you. If you use weak phrases and introduce doubt by using words or phrases that feel unauthoritative, they’ll lose the trust they might have been building.
You can learn how to DIY emotion-driven and revenue-oriented copy here. It’s my process for all my projects.
If you’re accomplished in your industry, fucking show it. I don’t mean to have a screenshot of your bank account, but people speaking up for you and your work helps immensely, so don’t be afraid to ask.
Show pics of you doing your thing often over social, so they can see and be a part of your life. In most cases now, you’re a personal brand. And if you’re pimping shit, you need to be able to show it off.
“I’m making $5M a month!” Show me.
If you’re just starting out, do NOT claim you’re this or that and you have no experience to back it up. Say you’re what you are, get some power clients under your belt and then you can say, “Hey! I 1,2,3”. Make sense? This is kind of a pet peeve of mine. And it’s a catch 22, really. Because you’re starting out and you REALLY want to run with the big dogs, so you’re tempted to embellish.
Don’t. Your time will come. Because everyone who claims to be something they are not, gets busted one time or another. And once you’re busted? Your trust factor goes to shit.
I didn’t say I had contributed to a $61M campaign for a household brand until I had. I didn’t say I write for 6- & 7- figure coaches until I did.
Trust is a funny thing.
And people will likely trust you more if they’ve gotten to know you and like you first. In fact, that’s how I got it all started. I didn’t know anything about business. I just wanted to write, so I played in social, giving everything away and having fun. That was my key. Having fun.
I talked shit. When I had bad days, I said it. When I wanted to post metal songs from YouTube or bike pics, I did it. The fam on my FB profile were just that, my fam. I let my hair down and they came running.
Because they knew they could trust me.