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Hemingway wrote that the best way to tell if someone is trustworthy is to simply trust him. In most corporations, especially technology ones, trust has traditionally been secured by two foremost aspects: security and compliance. I imagine this approach (like Hemingway’s advice) is not only outdated, but also costs corporations tens of millions each 12 months.
How director of trust, I’ve worked with dozens of corporations in retail, software, and even biotech, helping turn their credibility into a product they will bring to market. This approach has led to faster sales and greater customer satisfaction, but it requires a completely latest way of pondering and acting. The reality is that the majority corporations think about trust the improper way: it’s not about accumulating checkmarks on an IT or compliance list – it’s about enabling, defending and creating real business value.
At a time when technological, sociological and even geopolitical forces are pushing us to reassess authenticity and how to build trust in a world stuffed with disinformation and deep falsehoods – I assumed a lot about this challenge.
Simply put, if trust in your company or product is required to sell, you possibly can and must convert it into your intended product based on evidence of how you run your business. Here’s how to turn trust into a go-to-market product with significant ROI (and why it’s never been more essential):
Confidence is gone
Cyberattacks, data breaches and online fraud has increased exponentially in recent years, but it is not only cybersecurity that causes trust problems. Edelman Trust Barometer for 2024 revealed that greater than two-thirds of respondents imagine that business leaders are deliberately trying to mislead people.
Companies like Meta and Boeing rose to fame made headlines Down devastating customer trust issues In recent years. In the software sector, I have seen first-hand how the downstream effects of a decline in trust can negatively impact corporations, whether through costly audits and compliance checks or by damaging their long-term valuation.
No matter what style of business you run, pondering about trust as a product will be an invaluable way to improve sales, increase revenue and support core business metrics. And trust really matters in the grand scheme of things the success of your company: proven to be a trusted company outperform their peers by 400%.
Building a latest framework of trust
For most corporations, credibility can be checked most frequently during the sales process. However, I imagine that corporations need to start pondering and talking about trust long before they get to this stage. The reality is that trust should be a key element of running a business customers care greater than you think.
It is best to start by thoroughly understanding customer needs and then finding ways to meet those needs through organizational practices and operations. Here is the trust structure I take advantage of:
1. Productize your process
Customers care about how your product is made – and they need to hear about how you deal with problems and how you’ll help them succeed (especially in software, where potential buyers require evidence that processes are secure and trustworthy, predictable behavior that offers the green light to purchase).
How to do it? Compile evidence of your trustworthiness into relevant trust stories that show your customers why they will and should trust you How you do what you do – whether that is looking at your data storage practices, your supply chain, or your approach to managing your business. By getting ahead of the competition and actively eliminating the potential for trust friction, you possibly can speed up sales and generate value.
2. Set up a trust store
While security and compliance have traditionally been the domain of IT, the practice of trust needs to be much more holistic – not to mention promoted and adopted by a broad cross-section of company leaders. Every segment of your company—from operations to marketers to management—ought to be talking about your trust practices and telling stories of trust.
And in fact, adding a Chief Trust Officer to your team will inevitably speed up your investment in trust as a core value driver (not to mention showing others how essential trust is to you as an organization as a whole).
3. Map C package metrics
As with any practice, you wish to know if your trust practice is working. How to measure it? Use the same metrics as your CFO, akin to impact on customer acquisition costs, customer churn and sales.
Be sure to align your trust practice with business value metrics that may gain management buy-in. I have personally seen results that talk directly to executives, akin to reduced time to close, increased revenue, and fewer (if any) disruptive audits.
Bottom line: trustworthy corporations and products are of top of the range on the market.
If trust plays a key role in your company’s performance, changing the way you think about it – and treating it like a product – can ultimately add tremendous value. But the best measure of success? For most businesses, this implies knowing that ultimately, your customers want to do business with you because your company is truly trustworthy. And that proof is in your trust product.