Trust: The Ultimate Business to Business (B2B) Advantage

When it comes to Business to Business (B2B), an area of specialisation for These Guys I Know, the #1 driver of success is TRUST. Ultimately, that a client feels safe doing business with you. Personal drivers are taking increasing priority in the buyer journey. 

This is a key focus area for These Guys I Know - and it’s particularly important when clients are doing things like putting their story out into the public arena, but also in general - when they are spending their valuable resources with us to drive business outcomes. Trust is key. 

Personal drivers include - values alignment, authentic connection, reputation and relatability, shared purpose, empathy and credibility - all factors that are considered more than ever in a world where it is tricky to differentiate the real from the fake. 

Modern communication tools (including LinkedIn and other social media platforms) provide a great way to build trust, if used properly - and personal brand is also a tool that is able to help in this way - let other businesses better understand exactly who they are doing business with. 

Businesses are no longer faceless institutions. You can go deeper in sharing who you are as a business / business leader through strategic storytelling and amplification.  Your team can demonstrate their own values and team experience - presenting a very deep, multi-faceted and authentic view of your business, a valuable proof point and reinforcement of who you are as a business - taking clients / potential clients behind the scenes. This should help people feel safe. It should encourage them to do business with you. 👏

Part of the reason we share online for example, is not to collect followers (though as a vanity metric - that’s very cool, we’ll take it right?) but to enable future business partners to understand who we are and what we stand for. When we work with a business or individual - we are putting our name to it and we take that very seriously. We want people to feel safe when working with us.

Ultimately, you can use modern brand and marketing tools to strengthen the number one business driver in the B2B space - making others feel safe to do business with you.

How good!

From a personal brand perspective this means letting people know who you are, sharing thinking and ideas - as mentioned in our other post, be clear on your position rather than just your profile.

From a business brand perspective this means sharing things like values - which matter more and more (to demonstrate emotional alignment), demonstrating your people's connection to your business, the experience they have when working with you, the quality of their work, encouraging authentic storytelling from your team and community across platforms - including LinkedIn.

Of course emotional drivers need to line up with rational benefits - but that's another story!

☎️ Like to find out how this relates to your business?  We would love to chat. Book a discovery call or sign up to our newsletter to keep in touch.