Mass Persuasion (part 15): how to build your credibility

mass persuasion large crowd rock concert

Raise your hand
if you want your market
to trust you more:

“Just start, then continue.” That easy? Can’t be!

In our last post, we discovered where exactly you start in building your credibility:

Action.

And what action you take?

You give something valuable for free, ask for something small in return, then consistently continue on giving something valuable for free.

Why?

In one fell swoop, you disarm any arguments your audience can have about you.

You got a handful of suggestions of what you give away.

And you saw a couple of traps that many people fall into:

Trap #1: Psyching yourself out: not using this just because it’s been used forever or by those around you
Trap #2: Not really making it free: offering lots of free stuff that requires your audience to invest a lot

Given the fact that Mass Persuasion is truly powerful, and given the fact that you are a responsible person truly concerned about the welfare of your prospects rather than merely being interested in harvesting their bank accounts, you absolutely need to make sure you put this next part into Action:

HOW TO:
Building your trust and credibility using Mass Persuasion

Remember that talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. You want to make people to think of you as someone who they can trust — like a doctor — rather than being just another carnival barker shouting, “50% off everything! Sale Ends Soon! Buy Now!”

Here are four continuous months of exact subject lines from a large lighting business. How much trust would these build in you if this was the only thing you received from them? And they are the only things you receive from them. Take a look at this carnival barker:

Bill, Clearance Sale + Introducing Deal of the Day

Bill, Clearance Sale + New Overstock Items

Bill, Red Tag Sale Event. Save up to 50%

Bill, Valentines Day Sale. Save up to 50%

Clearance Sale - Limited Quantities Available

Clearance Sale + Free Shipping

Clearance Sale Extended

Expanded Selection + Free Shipping Means Easy Shopping

Great Spring Values. Red Tag Sale

Mother’s Day Sale - Save on Great Gifts

Outdoor Sale + Quoizel Email Exclusive Offer

Save Big During our Red Tag Sale

Save on Sustainable Products - Up to 50% Off

Save up to 50% during our Memorial Day Sale

Save Up to 58% on Outdoor Lighting and More

Save up to 70% - Clearance Sale Savings!

Shop with ease and Save up to 50%

St. Patricks Day Sale. Save up to 50%

Up to 68% Spring Savings in our Value Center

Okay, so don’t do that kind of stuff. Do this, instead:

Start by giving away something valuable for free: We already talked about peeling back your eyelids and noticing all the ways that business do this. And some ways you can, too.

Consistently continue to do so: Yes, it means you need to find a consistent way to continuously deliver valuable free stuff.

Need an example?

“Talk is cheap” and “Actions speak louder than words.”
What have you done, Bill?

In my real estate days back in the pre-internet world, for years, on the first of every month, I snail mailed out 8000 direct mail pieces worldwide to owners of Hawaii investment condominiums. (That’s nearly 100,000 pieces a year.) Thanks to computers and merging Excel database information into Word templates, each one was tailored specifically to that particular owner, including their name, property, and a databank of market activity relevant to them. (It took 45 minutes to merge the data in those first days of the personal computer. Today, it takes 0.45 seconds.)

What in it was the “something valuable for free” part? While all other brokers sent out “Hire Me!” direct mail and specifically excluded giving market information so that people would have to call them to get that information, I included info on everything (for sale, in escrow, sold and closed) and even put that into graphs.

(I hired a computer programmer to create a program that did all this for me at the touch of a button.)

How well does this work?

The result? People would call me and simply ask my advice about their situation, then ask me to sell their property. I never did any selling or convincing. Trust built up through consistent and continous giving of valuable information. I had become a trusted advisor rather than just a real estate broker.

They just called me on the phone and hired me. I felt like a counter clerk merely taking someone’s order.

That’s how well it works.

And . . . I had some of those 8000 agreeing to help me in competitive intelligence work by sending me all the other real estate brokers’ direct mail pieces once a month in large, postage paid envelopes I gave them so I could see what my “competitors” were saying. Since some of those pieces were sent by seasoned professionals, I used them to rapidly improve my own direct mail.

Sure, they trusted me enough to do my intelligence work for me. But there was a deeper reason why they did it. It has a lot to do with being consistent, and it’s like a light with magnetic qualities. It satisfies deep emotional cravings that all humans have: the need to be recognized and appreciated for who they are.

In today’s world, there’s a huge craving for reassurance, an acute need to believe, a flight to faith. People need to believe — and that’s the essence of credibility.

Next time, we talk about these chronically unmet psychological and emotional needs that all your prospects have.

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