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Gaining the Trust of Others
Building credibility starts with you. Even before you put your fingers on a keyboard, you must have made decisions about yourself and your company or product.
Credibility is being trusted, and being trusted starts with values. Write down the values that you will not budge on, those values that you will defend in all cases. Do not write down values that you do not truly believe in. It is extremely important that you be honest with yourself in this step of the process. If you are not sincere, it will come through to your clients, customers, and friends and they will not feel that you are trustworthy.
Consider writing a mission statement for yourself. A mission statement can give your company a purpose besides money. It allows you to have a ,clear-cut idea of what it is you consider to be most important about your business. In the future, your mission statement could promote your business by being a prime example of your beliefs and telling clients that they can trust you.
Try writing down some of your values and possibly a mission statement right now. Below are some value-based intentions.
• Precipitate positive change in the world.
• Resolve all types of issues whether they be within the company or in the local state.
• Be a moral agency.
• Generate enthusiasm in employees and clients.
• Make things happen. Have a positive outlook and expect that you can make anything happen that you set your mind to.
Standards are a bit different from your beliefs and values. Your standards are the way your company should be run to make money and satisfy your customers. Some categories of standards could be:
• Customer service: How you treat your clients.
• Transactions: The amount of time purchases take or the way that they are handled.
• Handling of currency: The protocol you follow in case of theft, where you store money, and who is allowed to handle the money.
• Client demands: The requests of your customers.
• Marketing: The way you advertise your company.
• Organization tasks: The ins and outs of the duties associated with your business day to day.
Here are some examples of some principles you may or may not hold for yourself:
• Customer service: You may make a promise to yourself that whether someone buys from you or doesn’t, you always want them to leave smiling. Always address your clients in a polite manner. Let customers know how long the product will take to arrive and if there are any issues in the process, inform them immediately. Respond to online inquiries within two days.
•Client demands: Do everything in your power to grant the wishes of the customer, even if it requires extra hours of work on your part.
• Transaction Time: This could be, for example, a 24-hour maximum amount of time needed to conduct the purchase.
• Call protocol: Respond to all calls as quickly as possible. When it is the wrong number, do your best to direct the customer to the correct employee. Remain on the phone until the customer has hung up.
• Co-Worker Behavior: Be respectful to each other. Have weekly meetings to keep everyone updated on current project deadlines. Be amicable with all other employees in order to guarantee satisfaction in the workplace.
Once you have written down your values, standards, and principles and you’ve been honest with yourself about them, you can move on to figuring out who you are. What is your personality? Are you a straightforward person or more of a joker? Do you like to talk or would you rather listen? You need to know the answers to these questions so that when you are in the midst of talking to someone or writing an email, you can be sure you are exemplifying to them exactly who you are, being genuine, and not being a fraud. People these days see everything as black and white. You are either trustworthy or not. If they get the feeling that you are not being true to yourself, then they will feel lied to and you have lost your credibility already. You can decide which of these personality traits you may have and of course add your own:
• Adventurous: fearless, bold
• Calm: relaxed, quiet, not easily angered
• Flexible: easygoing
• Logical: rational, reasonable
• Optimistic: thinking positive thoughts first
• Passionate: excited and intense
• Realistic: practical
• Sympathetic: able to understand and be sensitive to someone else’s feelings.
• Witty: funny
After you have made it very clear to yourself who you are, then you must make sure you know your product or company inside and out. You need to know every single thing there is to know. Write down some questions about your product that you may encounter. Ask friends and family what questions they may ask if they were being targeted by this company. Then write down your answers. If you don’t know the answer, find out. You do not want to be asked a simple question about your product and not know what to say, because this takes your credibility away. The customer will want to know that he is in good hands working with you. He wants to know that you know your product. If you do not know your product, how could you possibly believe in it? The more questions you answer, the more comfortable people will feel around you, and the more confident you will feel. Clients like a confident salesperson.
Here are some questions you can answer about your product:
• What are your personal experiences with this product or service?
• What is the point of the commodity?
• How would you characterize it? What does it look like, feel like, smell like?
• How can they obtain it? Is it delivered, or do they pick it up in store?
• What is the price? Do they have to do anything else before receiving it?
• Why should they get it from you and not someone else?
What are the attributes of your product and why is it advantageous for your clients to use it? Below are some examples of questions about attributes, followed by a possible advantage:
• What is the benefit in using your commodity? It will cut down on wasted time.
• How does it operate? It is uncomplicated and can be used by anyone.
• How is it generated? It is not harmful to the environment in the process of producing it and is recyclable after being used.
Next, decide who your target audience will be. Your tone is dictated not only by who you are but who you are talking to. If you are targeting mothers, it is clear that you will want to make it sound as if your product is in the best interest of the family because that is what is most important to a woman as a mother. If you are selling to busy businesspeople, however, you will want to sell the fact that the company will never waste any of their time.
If you aren’t sure who your target audience would be, take into account who your current clients are. What type of needs do they have? What keeps them up at night? What are their day to day problems? Where do they spend time? What do they buy regularly? What is it about your company that makes their lives better or easier? What do they dislike about companies? What do they dislike about people?
The answers to these questions will help you figure out exactly who to target and how to do so. You will want your company to somehow meet their needs, help them sleep at night, solve their problems. You will want to market your company where they spend time regularly, the places they shop. Tell them how your company has made lives just like theirs better already. Stay away from the things they dislike about companies. Stay trustworthy by being exactly what they expect and want in a business.
In more general terms, you may want to decide whether you market primarily to men or women? What age group purchases your product? Are they married? What do they do for a living? On the other hand, if you are looking to sell to a company, how many people work at the company? What service or product does that company offer?
Once you have answered all these questions about who you are, your values, your products, and your clients, you will finally be ready to start your email marketing. All this information will keep your credibility high as you sell your product through your emails and to your wonderful clients.