Trust – The Currency In The New Economy

So, who do YOU trust?

Ask Mark Harvey, the Australian Rules Football coach of the Fremantle Dockers – he was at a public function representing the club in the morning and sacked at 4.00 pm in the afternoon! Or ask the board of the St Kilda football club who were told by their coach, Ross Lyon, that he ws quitting and not seeing his contract through to the end of the 2012 season. Mark Harvey also had 12 months of contract to go.

It seems that in this new economy a contract counts for nothing. It seems that politicians words count for nothing! (“There will be no price on carbon in my term of government!” Thank you Julia!)

So who do we TRUST? Not politicians, not religious leaders and not footy clubs and coaches – it seems!

Apparently, according to reports in various media, we are more and more trusting people we know and love. People who are close to us. More business is done by referral and trusting what our friends say than by traditional advertising in the media.

Power has shifted to the ‘client’. It is a buyers market in almost every category out there. Certainly in retail it is where people will do their research online before approaching a retail outlet. In some cases people are using their smart phones (iPhones and their equivalent) to scan bar codes in stores and finding out the online prices for products and then approaching the checkouts and demanding they match the price! A retailer has told me this happens.

So how do you get people to TRUST you? How do you get them to come to you in the first place and try you out?

Well you can try the traditional method by offering large discounts! hence the sudden rise of discount vouchers liek Scoopon, Cudo, Groupon etc. This can be a good way to get people in for the first time (but make sure you do your maths first – or you will go broke!). So then you have one chance to impress them enough so that they keep coming back! How many business owners know how to entice a customer back? How many business owners know how to develop a client for life – based upon TRUST? Not many!

One very effective way which businesses and major corporations alike are trying to “get referrals and build trust” is through the massive popularity of social media marketing – and Facebook and Twitter particularly.

On the Gruen Factor program recently they talked about how KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline, were monitoring Twitter in Schiphol (Amsterdam) airport. When they saw someone tweet who was booked on a KLM flight, staff would go and find them and give them a gift to thank them for flying KLM. What do you think this avid “tweeter” did after getting the gift? YES, they tweeted about the gift and how great KLM were! Instantly getting the word out to goodness knows how many of the person’s friends AND everyone else on twitter about how great KLM were. Beautiful, wonderful, FREE word of mouth marketing (apart from the small cost of the gift).

So, how are you using the new (FREE) social media marketing tools to develop trust and seek referrals for your business? There are many small and medium businesses, as well as the major corporates, who are taking advantage of things like Facebook. Go explore the possibilities! It’s largely free marketing apart from your time.

Here’s a small short promo! I have partnered up with Peter Butler of Smarter Websites to run ‘hands on do it with you’ workshops to help business owners actually build their Facebook Business Page in the workshop and optimise it for their business. Enough said – you can get the details by CLICKING HERE

All the best for you in your business. I am a business coach and business broker. I work with business owners to help tem build their businesses for lifestyle and prepare them “ready for sale”. I do this through business owner mentoring groups, one on one coaching and a variety of workshops and seminars.

John Denton