Buying your product or service is like rappelling down a wall. And you’re the one holding the ropes. Can your customer trust you to safely get them to the bottom? In reality, you probably aren’t actually helping them rappel, but they still want to know if they can trust you to solve their problem. Watch this video to find out how they can know without a doubt that you won’t let them fall.
Full transcript below.
Full Transcript
Buying a product or a service is a lot like going rappelling. And when you realize that your customers, when they come to you, they’re asking you to help them rappel down the wall safely.
Hi, my name is Steve Phipps. And this is a weekly marketing tip from Wayfind Marketing. When I was in college, I had the opportunity to go rappelling several times. My college roommate went rappelling quite a bit, so he had all the equipment. And we went near Nashville, west side of Nashville actually. And, we went down a couple of different walls. But the highest was probably about 175 or 180 feet. And so we would go down a couple of times. Well then, a few of us, myself included, decided to go Aussie style, which is where you turn around. So instead of your back facing the ground, your front is facing the ground. So, you’re going down looking where you’re going. And, I never would’ve done that if I didn’t trust my roommate, if I didn’t trust the equipment that he was using.
Now, I use that as an example because, when your customers are coming to you, maybe they’re on your website, maybe they’re having a conversation. What they want to know is can they trust you? If they were to go forward and do business with you, buy your product, buy your service, enter into an agreement, whatever that is. Can they trust that you are going to help them succeed?
Now we talked last week, I talked about the first step of the buying process, of building a relationship, and that stage is called curiosity. That’s where people get to know who you are. Well, the second stage is called enlightenment. And this is where we, as a business owner, or as a marketer, as a brand, we have the opportunity, and really the responsibility to build trust. Now I’ll give you one practical way that you can do this. ‘Cause again, if they’re going to invest money, and time, and energy with you, they expect something in return. And of course, the question is, how do I know that I can trust you? How do I know that you can do what you say you can do? Very practical but effective way to do that is testimonials. Ideally you get video testimonials. And you put them on your website, put them on social media. You share them, you can use those in sales presentations. Because what happens in that case, they’re no longer listening to you. Because, now they’re listening to your customers. They’re listening to people who have had the experience that you are promising.
So, be mindful, don’t skip this stage. It is absolutely essential to build trust. Don’t go straight to the ask if you haven’t given them a reason to trust you. Because remember, it’s a lot like rappelling. And they’re only going to trust somebody who they feel like is going to get them to the ground safely.
