No B. S. Trust Based Marketing

The Ultimate Guide to Creating Trust in an Understandibly Un-trusting World

Matt Zagula, Dan S. Kennedy

• Verlag: Entrepreneur Press
• Jahr: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781613081761
• Thema: Business
• Thema: Marketing

" My research shows we are heading into a major shake-out in business that will determine the leaders for decades to come. This will REQUIRE creative marketing and positionin, and there is no better source than Dan Kennedy on this topic. His book No B.S. Guide to Trust-Based marketing is rich with vital insights.” -Harry S. Dent, Jr., author, The Great Crash AheadTrust Between Consumers and Businesses is Gone
Here's How to Fix ItInternationally recognized "millionaire maker,” Dan S. Kennedy, joined by entrepreneur and financial consultant, Matt Zagula, show you how to break down the barriers caused by the "trust no one” mantra invading every customer’s mind today.They deliver an eye-opening look at the core of all business—trust, and teach you the secrets to gaining it, keeping it, and using it to build competitive differentiation, create price elasticity, attract more affluent clients, and inspire referrals. You'll get the essential strategies required to build trust in an understandably untrusting world, and in turn, attract both business and profits.Covers
• 8 ways to demonstrate trustworthiness to prospective clients
• The #1 secret desire of today’s untrusting prospects—how to understand it, respond to it, and use it to transform marketing, prospecting, and presentations
• How to avoid dumb mistakes that scream "salesman” to prospects
• Why "Where can I find clients?” is the wrong question. The right question is: How can I construct a business persona and life so that clients seek me out, with trust in place in advance?
• How to keep products, services and prospects away from the avalanche of competitive and confusing information online
• The incorrect assumption that trust is built by imparting information and knowledge and a breakthrough technique to replace this mistake

CHAPTER 1

Trust-Based Marketing as the Path to Wealth

Dan Kennedy

You can get laid with lust. But you get married and stay married with trust.

So a lot depends on your objectives. I′ve long believed in business that, rather than get customers to make sales, it is smarter to make sales to get customers. The first provides only income. The second provides income and equity. If all you′re after is a day-to-day income boost for yourself or revenue growth for your company, you′ll find plenty of ammunition and firepower in this book to achieve those limited goals. But, even if you don′t begin in sync with us, I hope as you proceed you expand your thinking about the impact trust-based marketing can have in building wealth. The majority of businesspeople think only about income every day. The exceptionally smart few who get rich from business, think about both, every day.

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You may skip over this chapter if you are not interested in getting rich. Chapter 2 begins on page 13.

GKIC, formerly Glazer-Kennedy Insider′s Circle, is the largest membership society and publishing/training/ coaching organization serving independent business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals, and sales professionals focused on direct marketing. It publishes five business newsletters, numerous online courses and home study courses, conducts major international conferences, has local Chapter-groups meeting in many cities, all centered around the works of Dan Kennedy. For information, see page 273.

In my own business, I′ve very deliberately worked at creating what I call ″lifers″—customers who stay engaged with me for decades, continuing to buy whatever I next bring forward, so that the getting of one in the first place is not just consummation of a transaction, but the start of a permanent relationship. Not just the grabbing of some money, but taking title to an oil well. In order to do this in my particular business—essentially the dispensing-of-advice business—I knew I had to earn and keep trust, and I figured out the three key factors in trust-based equity for me: one, being known as a candid, blunt teller of truth, even if unwelcome by many, and never pandering. Thus, the ″No B.S.″ brand I created. Two, establishing certain principles as constants in my writing, speaking—all my works—that were evident and did not change. And three, never abusing my customers for short-term profit. Given these three things, they can trust me not to endorse anyone or anything or sell them anything I don′t genuinely believe is honest, beneficial, and the best in its category. For me, this has worked out very nicely. What is now the GKIC business, evolved from my personal business, does in fact have large numbers of members who′ve been with me for 10, 20, 30, even approaching 40 years. Many who′ve spent six figures during their tenure—people attending a GKIC SuperConference^SM now, who first attended a seminar of mine 20 years ago. And this did translate to equity, as the company has been twice sold, and the two sales combined provided a good share of my wealth. This asset can be built upon and leveraged into ever-growing wealth, or it can be destroyed, depending on the thinking and actions of the people who have stewardship of it.

My favorite company of all is Disney. In its present form, it′s hard to imagine that, as Walt put it, it all started with a mouse. And with Walt. In industries that were entirely transactional—amusement parks, films, toys—Walt built trust-based brand equity and relationship equity. Relationship equity is still a major part of Disney′s business today, driving premium-priced attractions, time-share real estate (Disney Vacation Club), fraternity (D23), and very frequent repeat purchasing. A series of CEOs that have held stewardship of Walt′s legacy have, amazingly, resisted almost all temptations to undermine the trust the company′s fans, customers, the public, and even investors have for Disney.

I′m a serious student of Donald Trump. Look carefully behind the Barnum-ism and you′ll see that he has done something no other real estate developer and magnate has ever done: built a publicly recognized brand that adds price elasticity to every building and real estate project that bears his name, and, most recently, extends to a successful TV franchise and licensing for a wide range of products, from luxury mattresses to steaks to clothing. Real estate buyers trust Trump to provide ″the best.″ Consumers who aren′t about to buy a $3 million penthouse apartment on Park Avenue want to get a small, affordable piece of that, so she buys her husband a Trump necktie at Macy′s, he splurges for their stay at a Trump hotel or resort.

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These are people who understand the matters of income vs. equity, and of the role of trust in equity.

Income tends to be spent. Equity accumulates and converts to wealth. So everybody needs to be thinking about equity, early, and it is my contention that the only real equity, certainly the best equity, and the source of all equity, is quality relationship with committed, continuing customers. So I would suggest anybody in any business engage in the same thought process I did and ask himself: What are the few, key factors for you, that will make you such a trusted and relied on presence in your customers′ lives that they stay with you—and spend with you—for life?

″But MY Business Is Different...″

Do NOT reject the question out of hand, because you think your business does not easily, naturally, automatically lend itself to such a relationship. It may seem obvious now that my business lent itself to this, but no one among my peers thought this way. In fact, many in my field joked about making sales and getting out of town before the posse formed. They were all hit-and-runners. Most still are. Today, they′re doing it on the internet, sharing massive email lists, driving to one promotion after another, divvying the money like pirates after a raid on defenseless yachts or freighters, rather than as traveling salesmen and speakers out on the hustings. But the effect is the same: income, no equity. So don′t reject the question out of hand. If you own hardware stores or other retail stores or restaurants, why can′t you become a trusted and significant part of your customers′ lives? To many, Martha Stewart has made herself just that, and she dispenses much the same sort of ideas, information, and inspiration it would be appropriate for a hardware store owner to dispense. If you are a physician, chiropractor, a dentist, look at Dr. Oz. Whatever your business, there is a way to be found and figured out, to elevate your status and cement your importance to your clientele.

What Is Long-Term Marriage About?

It′s about always being there, that you will have the other person′s back. That they know you care about them. That you find ways to stay interesting and relevant over years of familiarity. Most business owners and sales professionals don′t really think about long-term marriage with customers. They either take it for granted or give it no importance. They are focused on income, not equity. They don′t think in terms of: what will this relationship have to be like, for this customer to stay married to me for life? It′s actually not all that difficult to figure it out in any given business. It′s more that nobody tries.

I routinely buy things from stores or service providers, visit restaurants, etc., where not even a feeble attempt at creating ongoing, lifetime relationship is made. Some of this is sloth and stupidity: We did well—he′ll be back. In many of these cases, relationship equal to equity could be very deliberately created. Yet no attempt is made.

Trust, Relationship, Equity, and Wealth

There are profound links between trust and relationship, relationship and equity, equity and wealth.

Brand-name, over-the-counter remedies—the brands we grew up with—continue to substantially out-sell generic versions of the exact same formulations and products displayed right next to them on the same shelves, and selling for 20% to 50% less. Why do more people buy Bayer® aspirin than generic aspirin? There′s nothing proprietary to it whatsoever. Because Bayer® is a trusted name. The 50% price and profit differential, from which much wealth can be derived, has nothing to do with product ingredients, product superiority, distribution, or service, and everything to do with trust.

For most, trust is more complex than just a recognized brand name, and few of us have the resources or patience to wait for generations to harvest our future fortunes from such slowly accumulated trust. We need a more complex approach that can accelerate the achievement of high trust, whether for competitive differentiation or support of premium prices or other motives, and all the components of such an approach are in this book. But, for now, I want to simply demonstrate the bridge from trust to wealth.

A seismic shift begins with a change in the fundamental question of all advertising, marketing, selling, and conduct of business, from: How can I make a sale today? or How can I make some money today? to: How can I make sales and money today but also create trust today?

Let′s Go Through a Consulting Session on This

If we were having a consultation, you and I, on this, we would begin very broadly. What will it take for you to grow wealthy from your business, in a reasonable time frame of your choosing? This shifts thinking. It switches from the most common How can I make some (more) money today? to How can I conduct my business affairs today and everyday to develop the kind of equity that translates to wealth? We would then examine all the possible kinds of equity in your particular kind of business. That might include unique intellectual property such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights; real estate paid off with business income (as opposed to renting or leasing space); control of distribution; and on and on. But in most cases, it would become evident that all kinds of equity rise or fall based on equity in relationship with continuing customers. Or that the only equity that can be protected is in relationship with continuing customers. And we would ultimately get to the question: What will this relationship have to be like, for this customer to stay married to me for life?

The Question

What will this relationship have to be like for this customer to stay married to me for life?

Inevitably, a big part of that answer will be: trust. And that will loop us all the way back to trust-based marketing. If it is true, and I believe it is, that the value of the equity you have via customers is a reflection of the level of trust they have in you, then it becomes blatantly obvious that developing trust must begin at the beginning, and must never be jeopardized or sacrificed for any other objective. This will color every decision you make.

The questions I′ve just raised are powerful, if taken seriously. They not only get to equity in customers for life, but to price elasticity, to greater numbers of referrals (thus lowered customer acquisition costs and speed of growth liberated from proportionate capital investment), to stability and sustainability, and more. They translate to more immediate, transactional profit, from which money can be siphoned to create permanent wealth, and to greater overall, total, lifetime customer value, which creates equity that can be sold or mined, also to create permanent wealth.

A Wealth Secret from Warren Buffett

If you′ve read Michael Gerber′s work, beginning with the best-selling book The E-Myth, you know his core premise: A business (or sales career) should be constructed and systemized as if it would be franchised à la McDonalds, cloned thousands of times, and successfully operated by people with far less talent or skill than you possess. That′s a form of operational equity. Of equal or greater importance is customer relationship equity, which can only come from a business deliberately engineered to have it.

I am not a fan of Warren Buffett as a human being. In his meddling in politics, I consider him a charlatan. But he is widely regarded as one of the world′s most successful investors, justifiably, and he doesn′t just invest in companies: he buys many in entirety based on their equity. As Gerber suggests by engineering a business for cloning, even if you never intend to actually do so, you could benefit by engineering a business to sell to Buffett, even if such an opportunity would never actually occur. You′d think more marketers would dig into Buffett′s investment choices to find marketing secrets, but I haven′t yet encountered any of my peers or competitors who′ve had this blinding flash of the obvious. If you did investigate as I have, you′d discover that about 80% of the companies chosen by Buffett have a very high trust component, some by brand identity, others by direct, and in some cases, personality-driven relationship with their customers. In some, a shift to more trust-based marketing has occurred in companies after Buffett′s investment in or acquisition of them, so perhaps he is influencing their leaders with such strategic recommendation.

If Buffett were advising you on how to make your business so valuable that he might want to buy it, he′d have to reveal this secret: that he buys trusted companies—companies that have invested in trust.

Buffett knows that the value of equity a business has via its customers is a reflection of those customers′ level of trust in that business or even its leaders. Given that, it becomes obvious that the pathway to wealth is in developing high trust with customers from the very beginning, and that this trust must never be jeopardized or sacrificed for any other objective.

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Your Navigational System

Most businesspeople are often tactical, rarely strategic. Even this book is loaded with tactical advice. There′s nothing wrong with tactics and tactical application, but too often businesspeople are randomly tactical. Random is dangerous. Randomly captaining a cruise-liner over the ocean can get you and a boatload of passengers killed. Randomly flying a plane hither and yon can stick you nose first into the side of a mountain. Randomly wandering a large forest can get you hopelessly lost, eventually turn you into a meal for bears. Having a sound, reliable navigational system that overlays, governs, and even restricts all decisions is the remedy for the hazards implicit in random activity.

The best such navigational premise for those interested in sustainability, stability, security, equity, and wealth is creating and leveraging high trust.

What Do People REALLY Exchange Money For?

Very few people understand money. Few grasp that money moves from one person or place to another for definitive reasons of its own. This is why all manner of centralized government confiscation and redistribution of money fails miserably. Money itself simply refuses to cooperate with ignorance and stupidity. After the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars extracted from the private sector and poured into the government′s ″war on poverty″—declared by President Johnson—we have more people living beneath the poverty line than ever before, and in the ver...