Trust is important in business relationships.

There needs to be trust between individuals on each side of the partnership for there to be success. This goes beyond the point of sale as well. There needs to be trust throughout the process and the lifetime of the relationship.

A recent article in Fast Company highlighted a few of the important aspects of trust and how it has an impact on business relationships.

From Trust Me: Here’s Why Brands Sell Trust, Subconsciously

…we store information according to how trustworthy we deem the source of the message to be.

…..

Many studies demonstrate that trust, above all else, becomes a more salient feature in our life as we grow older. Perhaps it’s because with our accumulated years, we’ve had our fingers burnt–more than once–by trusting the wrong people. Now, older and wiser, we begin categorizing our surroundings based on the level of trust we have developed. There’s our inner circle, consisting of family members and longstanding friends. Our brains deem all those who occupy the inner circle to be trustworthy. Trust first, name second. I believe this to be the reason why I often confuse my best friend’s name with my close cousin.

We use trust as a signal of how we feel about certain people. We focus on trust more than something as simple as remembering a person’s name. Even when it comes to our close friends and family we can often relate well to how trustworthy they are to us, but sometimes we can forget common attributes such as a name or what their job is.

In business, trust is just as important as it is with family and friends. When you are trying to form relationships with prospects it’s important to establish trust with them so the business relationship can be long and prosperous.

With the new Web, there is a great tool for developing this trust.

How a Blog Creates Trust

Many of the folks I’ve worked with have expressed how their clients have found their company through a blog. These folks will stumble across an article on a certain topic. They’ll read the article. They become interested in the source of the information. They subscribe to the posts and read past archives.

Eventually this person might decide to purchase the company’s products or services, but before the actual purchase there is something important that occurs.

With a company blog, you can create a trusting relationship with your customers – current and potential. The blog acts as an agent for your business. You share your thoughts and help your customers with their problems. Over time, your customers learn to trust you for the information you share with them on your blog. A relationship is formed. There is a trust because the customer feels like they understand your point of view on the items that concern them.

A blog can have a great deal of information that is relevant to your customers. You might share your company’s point of view on industry news. You might create how-to guides that your customers can use to improve their lives. You might even share news about new products and services from around the industry allowing your customers to discovery these items.

There are many ways to provide value with a blog. Over time, the outcome of this value-added service is a trustworthy relationship with your customers.

And a trusting customer is a profitable customer.

Handshake image courtesy of buddawiggi