If You Fail to Establish Trust, You Will Fail

I stumbled across an article today about Trust, written by blogger Donal Daly on the Sales 2.0 Network. Because I work with trusts and estates attorneys, I was intrigued. Attorneys say that time is their stock in trade, but in reality it is trust. If an attorney cannot establish trust, he will not have a successful practice. It really is that simple.

Marketing a trusts and estates or elder law practice is not about explaining federal estate taxes, how a revocable living trust works, or the intricacies of a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust. It's about establishing trust and building relationships.

As Daly wrote: In these difficult times (which unfortunately will be with us for quite a while yet), progression in business demands uncommon levels of trust. My recent observations would suggest that buyers are more nervous than ever before. 

From my own observations, I concur. Buyers today are looking for the red flag of warning. They don't want to be duped by another "trusted advisor." Daly describes it this way:

Many consultants and business advisors ... extol the virtues of becoming a ‘trusted advisor’ to your customer.  The value of the Trusted Advisor has itself become questioned.  What happens if your trusted advisor is called Bernie Madoff?  You end up asking yourself “How did that happen?”  “What other trusted relationships do I have that I should question?”

As a marketing strategist consulting with attorney clients, my focus is primarily on marketing communications. Here are five things that I think every marketing communication must have in order, not only to build trust, but to avoid undermining it and sending out "red flags" to clients and prospective clients:

• Client-Focus: Marketing communications should focus on client needs, not attorney expertise, capabilities, or services. And certainly not on legal documents.

• Relevancy: This is a corollary to client-focus. Messages should be targeted and relevant to the intended audience. In today's digital world, there is no excuse for sending "blanket" messages that don't connect with your audience.
• Honesty: Consumers today have a very high level of sophistication, especially when it comes to marketing. Avoid puffery or trickery. Most people know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Your marketing messages should ring true with sincerity and honesty, leave the huckstering to late-night infomercials.
• Professionalism: All of your marketing materials should carefully and tastefully designed to enhance your professional image. Technology makes it possible to easily and cheaply create a lot of very bad marketing materials. Worse yet, you can easily and cheaply deliver them to thousands of people at once. "Cheap and easy" are not words you want people to use when describing you, your practice or your website.
• Consistency: Consistency is one of the hallmarks of trustworthiness. We know we can trust people who are consistent. You can display consistency in your marketing messages. Your messages should be visually consistent (think branding), they should be editorially consistent, and they should be consistently delivered. For example, if you want clients to be focused on your value rather than your fees, then offering a $200 discount coupon is inconsistent with your brand. If you want to distinguish your firm as providing excellence in estate planning, then a slap-dash website design is inconsistent. And, if you say you are sending out a monthly newsletter, but it only arrives twice a year ... or if your monthly newsletter suddenly stops arriving at all ... your marketing messages are inconsistent. These kinds of marketing mistakes undermine trust.

As Daly concluded: If you fail to establish trust you will fail. Put yourself on the line. Remember, action is the only language of trust. Deliver more than you expect to receive.  You might be surprised at the return.

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[Jennifer Campbell Goddard]

I am currently out of the office in preparation for my wedding on October 17th and honeymoon to follow. I will return on Monday, November 2, 2009. If you need immediate assistance, please contact April Leabo at 877-352-2021 extension 2 or april at estateplanningpartners.com.
Thank you,Jennifer Campbell, VP/CEOINTEGRITY MARKETING SOLUTIONS