Credibility

Does your business have credibility? Do you offer a credible product or service?

In other words, do people believe that you’re capable of doing what you say you can do? Do people believe your product will perform as you claim?

Having credibility means that customers believe that you or your product can do what you claim.

Credibility is related to trust in that:

1. People do business with people they trust.
2. One of the main reasons consumers don’t buy a product or service is because they don’t trust that it will work.
3. You need to earn trust and credibility, and it’s not always easy. Establishing credibility when selling products is difficult. Establishing credibility when selling services is even more difficult!   Customers can’t physically put their hands on a service, so they can’t measure its credibility as easily as they can a product’s.

You must consider whether your product or service is trustworthy, based on the messages your company sends to customers.  Remember, you send messages through your marketing pieces, your communications with people and the ways in which you conduct yourself.

No Credibility: The Risks

Without credibility, people perceive your product or service as having less value. Customers have no reason to pay for your product or service if they don’t believe it will live up to your claims. In fact, a product or service with no credibility increases the customer’s risk in multiple and significant ways. Specifically, the customer risks:

1. Being unhappy with the purchase
2. Having to buy a different product to replace the one bought from you.
3. A service outcome that creates a new problem rather than fixing the original problem.

If consumers perceive risk from doing business with you, they will do business elsewhere.

Review this module if you:

1. Still need to make that first sale.
2. Provide a service, for which it’s more difficult to establish credibility.
3. Provide a professional service about which the customer doesn’t have a lot of prior knowledge. The less customers know about what you do, the more reluctant they’ll be to make a purchase, and the more credibility you’ll need to establish first.
4. You have a lot of potential customers—people who really like you personally and are knowledgeable about your product or service—but few sales. The problem is credibility.

Topic Objective: To learn how to enhance credibility and professionalism.

Your Outcome: More customers trust you, believe in you and buy from you.

Learn More About Credibility

***

Check out our Instagram account!