“Trust is a principle. Google is a platform.” Marcus Sheridan, author of They Ask, You Answer and owner of River Pools, couldn’t have made it clearer at BizX 2024 this week.
If you want to understand how to build trust with your audience, take a look at how Marcus does it over at www.riverpoolsandspas.com. The approach? Mind-blowing and deceptively simple. His core message is this: trust is the currency of business growth, not just in the 2020s but always.
In an era of endless technology and social media platforms, your website has become your handshake with the world. But here’s the thing—it’s not about hard selling. Trust comes first. When you build trust with your audience, you allow them to make 80-90% of their buying decisions on their own. They feel informed, respected, and ready. And by the time they’re ready to buy, you’re already the trusted choice.
One powerful takeaway from Sheridan’s approach is what he calls The Pride Cycle. It goes like this: Prosperity makes us confident, so we stop doing the small things that got us there. Then comes the pain. Finally, we return to the fundamentals, building trust and delivering value, which brings back prosperity.
But here’s the danger: if you stop doing the small things and don’t correct course quickly, you risk more than a dip—you risk going out of business.
So, what’s one of those small things? You guessed it—trust. Building trust is a principle that goes beyond any platform. It’s the groundwork for a business that thrives and outlasts trends. Because trust isn’t a small thing—it’s everything.
As we explore Sheridan’s insights in the weeks ahead, think about how you can bring trust back into your own approach. The results will speak for themselves.