Customer Trust Using Company History
Whether you’re fighting a larger competitor or simply the skepticism of a prospective customer, your company needs to bring every weapon it has to the sales process. Along with commonly used tools like testimonials and awards, your company history and the track record of your executives can provide a strong push to your close rates.
How is trust built?
Along with the standard perspective of proof of success with other customers, a company’s history with respect to a product area or segment can serve as a powerful trust builder. We’ve seen many examples of companies using their history as tactical tool to position against both competitors and buyer skepticism.
Its useful to ask the question: what is the underlying aspect of buying behaviour which can be helped by presenting company history? Often buyers are unable to fully assess the features of a product against their needs. It might be the result of inexperience, lack of knowledge of the area or simply a lack of willpower. As a result they look for shortcuts in the buying process: one of which is trusting a company to provide the right solution for their situation.
Part way through a successful sales cycle, the mentality of a buyer can switch from resisting to being positive to the product. They will look for reasons to trust your ability to deliver value to them. This is the opportunity to utilize key elements of your history to demonstrate credibility:
- do you have a long history with particular industries?
- has your management team spent decades in the industry and bring a wide expertise in the product area?
- does your history stand out from the competition in some areas (even compared to larger competitors)?
Trust: From Enemy To Friend
Where trust initially can be an enemy in your effort to secure new customers, when trust is built, it will lead some prospects to trust your ability as a company to deliver. That can often shorten the sales cycle as less emphasis placed on line by line assessment of your products.
