The Business Opportunity Nobody Talks About: Become Easy to Trust

I'm writing this from Maryland.

Every place I travel seems to make me think about business differently, and Maryland brought something to mind that I don't hear entrepreneurs talk about nearly enough.

There is a tremendous amount of serious business happening here.

Government. Defense. Technology. Medicine. Research. Logistics. Companies working with institutions where you don't simply walk in, shake somebody's hand and start doing business tomorrow.

There are qualifications.

Processes.

Contracts.

Documentation.

Security.

References.

Procurement.

Approvals.

At first glance, all of that looks like bureaucracy.

But I think there's a much bigger business lesson hiding inside it.

Some of the largest opportunities in business don't go to the company with the best sales pitch. They go to the company that creates the least uncertainty.

That's a completely different way to think about growth.

Every Business Has a Trust Tax

Imagine two companies competing for the same contract.

Both appear capable.

Both have competitive pricing.

Both say they can deliver.

But Company A makes the buyer work to believe them.

Their proposal is confusing.

Nobody knows who is responsible for what.

Their website doesn't match what the salesperson said.

They take days to answer questions.

Their agreement is vague.

Their invoices are inconsistent.

Their references aren't ready.

Everything requires another explanation.

Company B is different.

Clear proposal.

Clear pricing.

Clear timeline.

Professional agreement.

References ready.

Fast communication.

Organized onboarding.

Defined responsibilities.

Evidence of previous work.

The buyer doesn't have to keep asking:

“Can these people actually handle this?”

That's incredibly valuable.

I've started thinking of the difference as a Trust Tax.

Every unanswered question makes your customer pay it.

Every inconsistency increases it.

Every unnecessary surprise increases it.

Every confusing process increases it.

And eventually, the customer may decide the opportunity isn't worth the uncertainty.

Customers Aren't Only Buying Results. They're Buying Certainty.

This changed the way I think about sales.

We usually assume customers are evaluating:

Can you get me the result?

But they're also quietly evaluating:

Will you answer the phone?

Will you still be around six months from now?

Will this become a headache?

Will you embarrass me if I recommend you?

Will you protect my information?

Will you do what you said?

Will I have to manage you?

That last question is bigger than most entrepreneurs realize.

Nobody wants to hire another problem.

Especially sophisticated customers.

The bigger the opportunity, the more expensive uncertainty becomes.

Run the Stranger Test

Here's an exercise I think every company should do.

Pretend you've never heard of your business.

You know nobody there.

You don't know the owner.

You haven't heard the story.

Now research the company exactly like a potential customer would.

Google it.

Visit the website.

Read reviews.

Fill out the contact form.

Call the phone number.

Request information.

Look at the social media.

Read the proposal.

Read the agreement.

Go through onboarding.

Then ask:

At what point would a stranger become nervous?

That's where your trust friction lives.

And owners are usually terrible at seeing it because we know too much about our own companies.

We know we're legitimate.

The customer doesn't.

We know why something works that way.

The customer doesn't.

We know we'll deliver.

The customer doesn't.

Your marketing has to bridge the distance between what you know about yourself and what a stranger can reasonably verify.

That's a much more useful definition of marketing than simply “getting attention.”

Build a Trust File

Here's something practical I think businesses should create.

One internal folder.

Call it your Trust File.

Inside it should be everything someone might reasonably need to become comfortable doing serious business with you.

Your company information.

Insurance documents when relevant.

Licenses or certifications when applicable.

References.

Case studies.

Standard agreements.

Frequently asked questions.

Leadership bios.

Testimonials you have permission to use.

Relevant policies.

Examples of completed work.

Vendor information.

Payment information.

Anything you repeatedly find yourself scrambling to locate when an opportunity becomes serious.

You may never send the entire folder to anyone.

That's not the point.

The point is becoming ready to be investigated.

Because the larger your company becomes, the more often someone is going to investigate it before writing the check.

Measure Time-to-Trust

Everybody measures sales cycle.

Very few businesses measure what I'd call Time-to-Trust.

How long does it take a qualified prospect to become comfortable enough with your company to make a decision?

If it takes 60 days, why?

Maybe the service genuinely requires a long buying process.

Or maybe your company creates unnecessary doubt.

Start tracking the questions prospects repeatedly ask before signing.

If ten prospects ask the same question, that's no longer a sales objection.

That's missing infrastructure.

Put the answer on your website.

Put it in the proposal.

Create a document.

Create a video.

Improve the contract.

Train the salesperson.

Remove the uncertainty before the question gets asked.

That's how marketing and operations begin working together.

Your Sales Team Is Probably Answering Questions Your Company Should Have Already Answered

This is another place I think companies waste enormous amounts of money.

Salespeople repeatedly explain:

How does this work?

What happens after I sign?

Who will I work with?

When will I hear from you?

What's included?

How do payments work?

What results should I realistically expect?

What happens if something goes wrong?

Those are perfectly reasonable questions.

But if every salesperson has to answer them from scratch, your company is rebuilding trust manually every day.

Document the answers.

Then make sure sales, marketing, operations and your agreements are all saying the same thing.

Consistency creates confidence.

The Bigger the Deal, the More Boring You Should Become

This might be the most unusual lesson in this article.

Entrepreneurs spend years trying to become exciting.

Exciting branding.

Exciting promises.

Exciting presentations.

Exciting opportunities.

That's useful for getting attention.

But when somebody is preparing to trust you with a large amount of money, I think something else becomes attractive:

Predictability.

They want the invoice to arrive when expected.

They want the meeting to start when scheduled.

They want the deliverable to look like what was promised.

They want the person responsible to answer.

They want bad news communicated early.

They want no surprises.

The larger the transaction, the more valuable “boring” becomes.

That's why I think one of the highest compliments someone can eventually give your business is:

“They do exactly what they say they're going to do.”

It isn't flashy.

It can be worth millions.

Never Make Your Customer Discover Bad News

This deserves its own section.

Something will eventually go wrong.

That's business.

A deadline moves.

A campaign underperforms.

An employee makes a mistake.

A vendor fails.

A shipment is delayed.

The mistake isn't always what destroys trust.

The discovery does.

If your customer discovers the problem before you tell them, you've created two problems:

The original issue.

And the question of whether you were going to tell them.

My rule is becoming increasingly simple:

Bad news should travel faster than good news.

Tell people early.

Tell them what happened.

Tell them what you're doing.

Tell them when they'll hear from you again.

You may be surprised how much trust can actually be built during a problem when somebody handles it professionally.

Trust Has a Balance Sheet

We talk about financial capital constantly.

Cash.

Credit.

Assets.

Debt.

But businesses also have trust capital.

Every promise kept adds to it.

Every good referral adds to it.

Every problem handled correctly adds to it.

Every year you've been operating adds to it.

Every person willing to put their reputation behind yours adds to it.

And every careless decision can withdraw from it.

The interesting part is that trust capital eventually starts producing returns.

Customers decide faster.

People introduce you more comfortably.

Employees recruit friends.

Partners bring opportunities.

Negotiations become easier.

You stop beginning every relationship at zero.

That's when reputation becomes an economic asset.

Build a Company Someone Else Can Defend

Here's the final test.

Imagine you're not in the room.

Someone is considering hiring your company.

Another person asks:

“Why should we trust them?”

Could someone who knows your company answer that question without calling you?

That's what you want.

You want customers who can defend your reputation.

Employees who can explain your standards.

Partners who feel comfortable introducing you.

Documentation that supports your claims.

A history that speaks before you arrive.

Because eventually, the biggest opportunities won't come from rooms you're standing in.

They'll come from conversations happening when you're somewhere else.

That's What Maryland Made Me Think About

Being here around so many industries where credibility, process and qualification matter reminded me that entrepreneurs sometimes spend too much time trying to become more impressive.

Maybe the better goal is to become more trustworthy.

Not trustworthy as a slogan.

Operationally trustworthy.

Easy to verify.

Easy to understand.

Easy to work with.

Easy to recommend.

Easy to defend when you're not in the room.

That's a different kind of competitive advantage.

So before you spend another dollar trying to convince more people to look at your business, ask:

What happens after they look?

Does what they find increase confidence?

Or create another question?

Because attention may get you into the conversation.

Salesmanship may get you to the table.

But as the opportunities become larger, something else starts deciding who gets the deal:

How much uncertainty does doing business with you create?

Reduce that uncertainty.

Build the evidence.

Document the process.

Keep your word.

Communicate early.

Make yourself easy to recommend.

You may discover that the next level of growth doesn't require becoming louder.

It requires becoming easier to trust.

Writing from Maryland.

— Corey Flores
Founder, Flores Marketing Firm