The “Art of Making Business Happen” aired a segment on trust as an active ingredient to one’s success in business. While its role is often taken for granted, there is a very strong relationship between trust and revenue. Anna Bernasek, economic writer and author of “Economics of Integrity” joined the show and talked about her insights on how to leverage trust to grow and sustain a business. Anna says trust and integrity translate to wealth through relationships. The relationship between a company and client starts with a single, or every, transaction. The company provides something of value to a client, which engenders trust in the client. As the customer continues to return, the benefit of each single transaction is multiplied for the company in revenue and future growth. Toyota became a symbol of integrity and gained customers because of it. When an organization, or even an economy, stops delivering on its promise (integrity), people lose trust and wealth is depleted. Part of the reason that the U.S. economy may not be bouncing back quickly is because there is a lack of business and consumer confidence. After all, a recession is basically a “set back” of trust. In Toyota’s case, it will be interesting to see if they will regain and move beyond what was lost recently.Our financial systems also rely on trust. Paper money also represents a trust relationship. When paper money is issued, it is supposed to come with a guarantee that something solid like gold backs it. The stock market works the same way. Today, we have governments printing money with not enough real assets to back it. There are financial institutions still operating with their interests overriding their customers. Anna suggest wouldn’t it be great if someone developed a credit card designed to benefit the customer instead always raising rates. In today’s climate, companies who focus on trust have a great niche since so many firms are doing the opposite.On a practical level though, how can entrepreneurs develop and leverage trust for competitive advantage. Ann shared some of the DNA for integrity – disclosure, norms, accountability, long-term thinking, and feedback. Also, she indicated practices for building trust, including appropriate branding (do what you say – deliver on your promise), reliability, and continuous improvement. As an entrepreneur builds his or her organization’s trust capacity, or assets, measurement also becomes important. A simply method is to see the number of word-of-mouth referrals your firm receives. An entrepreneur can simply as a client, “How did you learn about us?” The daily routine of running a business can drown out intentionally working on the trust factor. Anna suggested a few questions entrepreneurs can keep at the front of their minds and build into their culture, which are:
For more information on how to use integrity to build your business, listen to the show. The “Economics of Integrity” can be purchased on www.amazon.com. Continue to tune into “The Art of Making Business Happen” as we share the DNA of dynamic business at www.blogtalkradio.com/art-of-biz.