Amir Tarighat Cofounder and CEO of Agency.
Trust is the new currency in today’s hyper-connected B2B marketplace, and for businesses, security isn’t just a defensive measure—it can be your product’s competitive advantage.
It’s no secret that trust is essential to make sales. No one will buy something from someone they don’t have confidence in. Naval Ravikant says it best: “Hype can make the first sale, but you need trust to make the rest.”
No matter how good your product is, people won’t buy it if they don’t trust your company. Business buyers’ standards for trust are only going up and if you don’t meet them, you won’t have the opportunity to wow them with how impactful your product can be.
There are many ways to build trust, and different products have different risks and sources of anxiety that need to be anticipated and put to rest in order to do so. Regardless of how you build trust, the most important thing is that your company’s trust-building positioning is clearly communicated at every step of the buyer journey.
Trustworthy Examples
Dropbox is a powerful example of a company that does a great job of this. The file-hosting-service giant leverages promises of robust cybersecurity and compliance programs to build trust with its customers, strategically positioning these programs as unique selling points that differentiate it from its competitors with similar products.
Due to the nature of Dropbox’s product (software that holds your important files and manages who does and doesn’t have access to them), privacy and security are natural areas of concern for customers. Dropbox treats these potential areas of worry as an opportunity to establish trust by making security a central part of its pitch. From the very first page of the website, we know that security is a major priority for Dropbox, and we’re not allowed to forget it.
Amplitude, a digital analytics software company that helps businesses use data to understand consumers better, implements a similar strategy. Their reasons for providing frequent and robust security guarantees are similar to those of Dropbox. Their position as an analytics firm that handles companies’ and their customers’ data comes with potential risks attached, which Amplitude aims to quell through its security-based marketing strategy.
Another major player that inspires trust in users by demonstrating a solid commitment to security is Ironclad, a SaaS contract management firm. Their reasons for doing so are also fairly obvious; the sensitivity of their clients’ documents and the intimately connected services they provide cement a clear commitment to security as a prerequisite to gaining buyer trust.
The strategy of courting consumer trust through security messaging isn’t limited to these companies; it’s a widespread practice that extends across industries, and its effectiveness grows in tandem with today’s need for companies to confront heightened security considerations driven by increasingly sophisticated cybercrime.
Establishing Trust With Customers And Partners
The bottom line is that B2B marketing and sales professionals can’t afford to ignore this increased focus on building trust during all stages of the client acquisition process. Prominent security guarantees are far from the only way to build trust with clients. Other common strategies include case studies, partnerships, awards and reassuring feature integration.
Case studies build trust with clients by demonstrating the business’s expertise and successful outcomes. They offer transparent insights into methodologies and results. They provide proof of value and reliability, influencing potential clients through relatable success stories and social proof from satisfied customers.
Relatedly, partnerships with reputable organizations and industry groups demonstrate credibility and efficacy, affirming the quality and functionality of your offerings. Successful collaborations with enterprises imply that your product is respected and influential—they wouldn’t partner with you if it weren’t.
Finally, integrating features that imply stability and reliability—such as auditable logging, SSO, SAML, MFA, etc.—into your product helps put consumers’ minds at ease. Even if these features don’t provide significant value to daily users, providing peace of mind is integral to any good SaaS product’s sales positioning.
Earning third-party audited certifications like ISO 27001, CMMC and SOC2 is another impactful trust-building activity. A bonus of working to build trust early is that these same practices can increase your chances of high customer retention rates down the line.
Across industries and business sizes, building a strong rapport with potential customers and partners by preemptively putting concerns to rest is essential to achieving outstanding sales outcomes. Especially in crowded SaaS marketplaces, integrating trustworthiness into the ethos of a company’s pitch, product and firm identity can give it the extra social capital necessary to effectively differentiate itself from the competition, enjoy more successful sales, attract more prospects and compete with legacy players who have been in the marketplace longer.
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