The relationship between familiarity and trust and getting someone to take a salesperson's call, read an email or a letter is persuasively strong. The more a buyer knows us and trusts us, the more likely he is ready to take our call, read our letter and open our e-mail.
The less familiar the buyer is with us, the more contacts it takes for his actions to align with our goals. Familiarity is so powerful that a buyer will generally take our call even in the absence of an immediate need for our product.
One of the reasons professional marketers use celebrity endorsements, portray people who look and sound like the prospect in letters and ads, and include testimonials from customers is that it has the effect of increasing familiarity, trust and credibility.
It is also why a referral from someone who knows your buyer well is so much more powerful than a referral from someone with whom your buyer has little or no relationship. Let's call it "trust transference." Someone the buyer trusts already did the legwork, developed the knowledge and trust.
Want to get in the door of a business or to build trust more quickly? Figure out who you know nearby of equal or greater status to the person with whom you're trying to develop a relationship and drop their name into your conversation.
Done correctly, this applies the following complex persuasion tactics in a very simple way.
- Public Opinion
- Familiarity
- Credibility
- Exclusivity
- Celebrity
- Authority
- Referral
Take a hard look at your business, your product, your service and your client list. Even without a direct referral or testimonial you can leverage the information to warm up any cold call, direct response letter and create memorable connections for prospects during presentations.
