Last week, I quit a mastermind group that I was excited to join just a few months ago. There are a handful of reasons I could have cited — all of which I would probably have ignored because I like the people in the group.

But ultimately it boiled down to one thing: trust.

The mastermind owner and his partner got into a legal dispute, and when I finally got the details, I realized I had been lied to.

The details don’t matter. The size or scope of the lies don’t matter. What does matter is that I lost trust.

In business, trust is everything.

If your customers don’t trust you, you won’t have a business for much longer, because no one invests in a product they don’t believe in.

Which begs the question, how do you build trust?

First, and most obviously, tell the truth. Be honest about what your product can and can’t do for your customers. Don’t exaggerate your marketing or sales pitch. If the truth won’t sell, go back to the drawing room and make your product more valuable.

Second, keep your word. If you say you’ll do something, do it. If you promise a specific feature or premium for buying, deliver it. If you learn you can’t do something you previously promised, own it and let your customers know.

Finally, embrace customer success. Remember, your customers aren’t just a revenue-source. They’re the lifeblood of your business. So take care of them. Do everything you can to help them succeed.

As I write this, I can’t help but think about the bottom-up, revenue-first marketing strategy I’ve been developing over the last year. It didn't grow out of a failed mastermind experience, but rather a client who has taken trust to the extreme.

G is one of the smartest entrepreneurs I’ve ever worked with, and that’s saying a lot because I have an impressive client list.

The first thing I noticed about G was the depth of his customer knowledge. He didn’t study analytics to create a generic persona. He didn’t scrape forums to learn how they talk. He’s spent time with them. He’s had hundreds of sales call ride-alongs with their salespeople. And he’s made it his mission to make their lives easier.

As a result, he’s built incredible trust with them — so much so that when he travels, a customer in that city will usually offer him a room in their home.

For G, trust is an asset that he can take to the bank. His customers are fiercely loyal because they know he will take care of them, whether that’s answering a question or developing a new feature to meet their needs.

He’s also built a lot of trust with me. He takes care of his team and he’s been one of my best clients ever.

G hired my team to work almost exclusively on below-the-funnel content — something I now call BEFU content. (We’ll probably talk more about that in future newsletters.)

Our number one priority? To turn passive users into power users.

To achieve that goal, we’ve created knowledge based content, onboarding, and user guides that are so good, they also serve as sales enablement content. In fact, our BEFU content is so good, we don’t need a lot of top-of-funnel content.

It turns out, if you build trust… if you turn your customers into raving fans… if you deliver, and keep on delivering, not only can you solve your retention problems, you can solve half of your acquisition problems too.

Trust really is the foundation of success, which is why the customer experience is now a huge part of any “marketing” strategy I develop.

Bottom line, growth isn’t about getting customers. It’s about keeping them.

Stay awesome!

Kathryn

Founder, KA Media & AccessXL​

P.S. If you’re interested in revenue-first marketing, hit reply and let me know. I’d love to chat about how a bottom-up strategy could drive growth for your business.

P.P.S. You can read more about how this strategy works in my article, SaaS Marketing: A Revenue-First Approach​

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