“Good reputation is good for your business as good reputation builds trust. And trust drives market value.”
The 24th November saw leading executives from around the world gather for this year’s Sales Conference. And as always, there was one big theme. And this year that theme was ‘trust’. But how do we build trust? In the ‘Future State of Trust’ report we identified 6 key dimensions critical to the process – and one of those was…’Reputation’.
Why ‘Reputation’?
You want customers to select your products over your competitors’. You want customers to talk about your brand and act as ambassadors. You want the financial market to invest in your company. How do we achieve this? Well, one central component of all these elements is your reputation. Reputation can often come across – from a business perspective – as a little abstract. Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “it takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it”. Warren Buffett (practical and number focused as always) was more precise when he said “it takes 20 years to build a reputation 5 minutes to lose it”. But while it should be evident that there are many ways to lose a business reputation – more than this article has time for – building one can be approached in a more pragmatic way.
“Reputation can be built upon many things, such as those we have mentioned in the other dimensions of trust. But for many B2B-companies reputation should be associated with the term thought leader.”
The Future State of Trust 2022 Report
So how do you build it?
From our survey, it became clear that business leaders are focused on immediate steps that they can take to build – and maintain – a good reputation. Their priorities were:
- 64% – To bring new insights and ideas based on research and trends
- 54% – To be perceived as a thought leader within the industry
- 20% – To embrace validation by influencers, online reviews and referrals
In an era of increased competition and where information is more freely available, positioning your business as being at the forefront of thinking on a given topic can give an invaluable competitive advantage – particularly relevant when products or services can be perceived as otherwise similar.
“A thought leader can be defined as an individual or a company that builds its competitiveness and profits on being a known authority within a specific area. Thought leaders create a unique position and change people’s perceptions by coming up with new ideas, knowledge, and insights, which makes them the self-evident actor to turn to for expert help.”
The Future State of Trust 2022 Report
What next?
This year, Mercuri Research presented their annual report based on a global survey of over 1,000 business leaders. It dissected what we actually mean by trust, breaking it down into its component dimensions and pointing out the real world impact of building trust from a business perspective. It offers guidance and suggestions as to how business leaders can find new opportunities, create better, longer lasting client relationships and find new ways to establish long term growth. The report looks at the topic of ‘trust’ as a whole and also examines dimensions such as ‘reputation’ in granular detail.
“Reputation is the emotional connection people have with your company. How do they associate with your brand? What have they heard? Do they view you as an industry leader who changes people’s perceptions by coming up with new ideas, knowledge, and insights?”
Henrik Larsson Broman
And with 99% of business leaders surveyed saying that “trust is critical to building long term relationships with clients”, how we get to that point is more important than ever. So, if you’d like to learn how to let your customers trust you – and build meaningful relationships with you – why not download the report or get in touch today?
