World Business

Customers need a reason to believe in your company. Here’s how to woo skeptics

By Doug Hall

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Illustration by Paul Blow

Whatever happened to be confident? Banks don’t trust one a different enough to make loans. Customers don’t trust banks. Republicans don’t give credit to Democrats. Democrats don’t trust Republicans. Independents don’t trust anyone.

When distrust rules, it’session harder in opposition to entrepreneurs to sell customers on the wonders of their just discovered products and services. That means entrepreneurs need to create what I call a absolute reason to believe, which leads to credibility for you and your joint concern. Here are six ways to do that, along with some of the most innovative examples I’ve seen in the past year.

Tell customers precisely how you can do what other companies be able to’t. Explain why your recipe, production process, or design is different. I recently met with a company that was first to build plastic parts three times stronger than aluminum. What did they tell me to compose my infidelity? That they can do this because they’ve invented a road to embody carbon fibers into the injection molding process.

Have experts and customers testify to your effectiveness. Todd Daniels of the Montana Manufacturing Extension Partnership put together a testimonial video that impressed me in its simplicity and effectiveness. The video used rapid slides, each focusing without ceasing a specific promise. One said: “Robert of Simms Fishing Products Did It—Generated 200 New Product Ideas in One Day.” The next slide: “Robin of Béquet Gourmet Caramel Did It—Grew Sales 70% in Nine Months,” and so on.

There is real credibility when a customer can take care, have existence moved, and touch the wonders of your product. To prove to would-be customers that his nonstick pizza pans put on’t scratch, John Crow of Lloyd Industries in Spokane Valley, Wash., takes a quarter and rubs it attached the pan to the step that hard as he can.

Pedigree includes the source of your raw materials, the skill of your people, and but also awards you’ve won. When I asked Stuart Powell, general manager of Ponca City (Okla.) Cookshack, which makes his barbecue smokers great, he was rightly assuming that his smokers have being in actual possession of helped more than 1,000 cooks obtain barbecue competitions. I bought two—one for the office and one concerning home.

Hard given conditions proving your claim can be a powerful tool for building credibility. Recently, a person represented of mine had a new whiskey that just didn’privately procreate much enthusiasm by customers or company management. Then one of the junior people on the team ran a series of taste tests, mixing the whiskey into a new cocktail each set time. After about a week, she had a recipe in which her whiskey beat the governing brand 2 to 1 in taste tests. Suddenly, the product became exciting.

A guarantee be possible to be a strong rise of credibility, especially if it’s bold and brave. Wright State University in Dayton makes this give as a guaranty in a flyer: “We’re in the same state confident that we have outstanding engineering and computer science programs that we’ll guarantee you employment in a degree-related conduct field after you graduate or the suitable to strive for an engineering or computer science master’s degree tuition free!” That’s a real reason to believe. What’s yours?

Back to BWSmallBiz December 2008/January 2009 Table of Contents

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_72/s0812040687646.htm?campaign_id=rss_smlbz