We live in a digital world where everything is set to automation and people hide behind emails and their websites.
However in some industries, like the trade industry, there is no hiding.
If you are in an industry where you have to go on home visits then building trust is something you must do very quickly.
It’s not something you can do via online, or can you?
When I first started doing content marketing for the trade, I knew of the many benefits it could bring to a company in terms of growing leads and sales.
However, there was one major advantage that I had never even thought of until my clients starting telling me the stories. When they went on visits to see clients their customers felt as if they really knew them, almost friends even.
I know it is hard to believe, but it’s true. Let me begin by first explaining to you what content marketing is and how it works.
Please save your skepticism until the very end as if you leave now you will be missing out on something miraculous.
In the beginning I knew that the trade industry had issues building customers trust on home visits but I didn’t know how to solve that problem.
Heck, this is probably why you are reading this post as you have that challenge too!
It wasn’t until 3 years later that I realised I had solved the problem without even trying.
This solution is not a quick one and in my clients case it took 6-9 months to work.
So let me quickly explain to you what content marketing is and how it will make your customers love you before you even set foot in their house.
Basically, content marketing is answering every question your customers have ever asked you and turning those questions into blog posts or videos, depending on what you are most comfortable with, then putting this content on your website.
It is said that nearly 60% of the buying decision is already made before someone contacts you.
10 years ago that would maybe have been 5%.
What will it be in another 5 years 80%?
Regardless, people are now looking on Google for the answers instead of phoning you. They search on Google for the answers to the questions they used to ask you.
If you answer these questions in the form of blogs when your customers searches for them they will find your content and you will build trust, authority and affinity with your customers.
But that’s not the best bit, and although that really helps build trust with your customers what I’m about to share will enhance that trust times 10.
If you want to hear the proof straight from one of my clients mouth just watch this video here.
If you are shot on time let me give you the gist to what he says:
“ It is quite ironic, you go to peoples’ doors, instead of me saying ‘Hi I’m John from Superwarm’, they are opening the door and saying ‘Oh hi John, good to see you’.”
“I am a little taken aback, then I realise, they have read half a dozen blogs we have written and they feel as if they know you. And that is a surprise.”
Here is where the biggest value comes. Think about all the questions people ask you on a home visit and create a guide answering all these questions. Put this guide on your website for everyone to read.
Here are two examples of one I have done for my clients:
Not only this, when someone phones or fills in a form on your website for a home visit, include a copy of this guide in the email, you will be amazed by the results.
Then when you visit the customer you will not have to sit there answering lots of questions all you will have to do is close.
In the video above, my client mentioned he increased his close rate from 33% to 70% by doing this. It increased the trust when he went to visit them.
Can you believe they answered the door by saying “ Oh hi John”, even if he had never met them before?
I would like to end with one of my own stories where I had experienced a bad example of a home visit and building trust in the hope that you would avoid doing this kind of sales tactic.
I was looking for some new windows, and my wife and I received a cold call telling us about a new government scrappage scheme.
They arranged someone to come out and see us to discuss.
I won’t name and shame here as that’s not what I am about.
So at 7:30 in the evening there was a knock at the door and there on my doorstep stood a 20 year old man wearing a lovely suit, grasping the latest iphone in one hand and a window in the other.
He sat for about an hour telling us how great his company was and telling us how bad all the competitors were before then measuring my windows.
Oh, and also told me there was no government scheme, WTF!
He tapped a few times on his oversized calculator and then told me it would be
£22,000 for my windows.
I nearly choked on my chocolate digestive.
He then went on to say, “But that is before the discount!”
After the discount it was £11,000.
But he could call his supervisor to see if we could get a trade price if we were ready to buy today.
This would mean they would be giving it to us at cost and they would make no money on it at all.
I kid you not, this is a true story.
After speaking to his boss on the phone he said he could give us it at £7,000 trade price.
When we told him we were not going to make a decision straight away he was not happy, I could see him fight back the urge to say something, his new sales training still ringing in his ears no doubt.
So he left after two and a half hours.
I did feel sorry for the guy, but that’s not the end of the story.
The next day I got a call from the company saying that they said they will send a joiner out to remeasure our windows as they could give me a price at cost.
I told them that the young chap had already given me a cost price but they insisted they would give us ‘factory cost’….. is that even a thing??
So, I said yes but the joiner never turned up. They then called back and said they would arrange another joiner to come.
I said if the price was not nearer £3,000 then don’t bother (as this what I was told it should have cost) they said that was fine, but never called me back.
Phew! That is not a way to build trust with the customer.
It is hard enough to build trust, this was just a massive reversal of trust.
It makes me feel sorry for the companies out there that actually care about their customers as it makes it so much harder for them.
Want trust? Then care.