Buyers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most

According to Nielsen, 92% of people will trust a testimonial from a peer and 70% trust a testimonial from a stranger.

While this research was from 2009, do you think anything has changed?

Know You, Like You, Trust You

A friend of mine is spending the weekend replying to an Request for Proposal (RFP), not that exciting.

The thing is, I know the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of that company. He will be part of the decision making process.

Two weeks ago, I could have connected them. 

But, by the time you get to RFP your ability to create relationships in the account is too late.

There's a popular Chinese proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Basically in the context of this blog here today, this means that if you want success and growth in the future, the best time to act is now.

Know You, Like You, Trust You 

is a term we often use in Modern Selling.

Know you 

- Make your profile "buyer centric".  Not who you work for and what you sell.  But who you are ... your why.  Connect to people on social media, not to sell them something, but to create a conversation.

Like you

- Share interesting content.  Not corporate content, but content that insights and informs.  Tell me something I don't know.

Get recommendations from customers.

Trust you

- This will happen ... if you do the two things above, people will trust you.

Why? - People buy from people they know, like and trust.

To make this real, here is a comment I got on Linkedin this week.

"Thanks Tim, we have great opportunities here in the Middle East but the sales cycle is very tough. It’s a battle to get deals over the line. On LinkedIn when Covid started I targeted all the banks in South Africa with personal notes and we are now engaged in 2 of the big 4. It’s the best tool we have."

If you are in Business to Business (B2B) Enterprise, this is your secret weapon. 

Start building a networktoday ... not on Monday today.

(not contacts)

It will pay you dividends. 

If you want to talk further, you can get me here

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhughessocialselling/