Case in point: Like before Trust

“Liking comes before trusting, not the other way around. Your clients must like you before they will trust you

I overheard that on Twitter the other day, and it’s a statement I disagree with. A client must like you? Like before trust?

Most people buy what they need or want. They don’t have to like the person they’re buying from. Many people don’t even care. People buy from people they don’t like every day. They buy from complete strangers, from faceless websites, from stores they’ve never been into before, even from people they despise.

Just because they want.

Is trust important to sales? Of course. Does it come after being liked? Not necessarily. Trust matters insomuch that you trust you will receive what you are promised. People won’t pull out any money and give it to you if they don’t believe that they aren’t going to receive what they expect to receive. No matter how much they like you.

And yeah, they might trust you to deliver because they believe you’re a good guy. And yeah, you might have more sales if lots of people like you. But that’s the long way around.

Let’s say some new guy with a little just-started business hears this piece of advice from an “expert”. The expert says nothing is more important than being liked. Sales will follow if people like you. Every business owner should put all his energy into social media and making sure people like him.

So off our naïve little business owner goes. He buys courses in how to use social media because he thinks clients must like him. He spends lots of time on Twitter and Facebook. He puts a ton of energy into convincing people he’s a great guy.

Meanwhile, he’s neglecting other aspects of his business because the expert implied they weren’t as important.

And the “expert” was wrong.