Networking and 60 Second Commercials--Your Credibility

Believability is a Process

Believability is a process. It is not accomplished by one shot credibility techniques. Every prospect has beliefs about himself and his world. Those beliefs help him make decisions. Being consistent with one’s owns beliefs is a powerful motive for every human being. For a customer to buy your product, they must give up their present belief (which prevents him from buying) and accept a new belief which will allow them to buy. Creating believability means removing the gap that exists between the current state of the prospect’s beliefs and the set of beliefs he must have in order for him to buy your product. You do this by getting a sequence of smaller agreements or acceptances from the prospect as you move him along the path to the new belief.

For example: Let’s say you are selling a home study course on your website that can be used to make website changes. You promise this home study course will help the business owner make 20% more sales from his website. You start with the assumption that most business owners do not believe they have the capacity to change their website. Website changes can only be done by a professional website person. Your job is to change the prospect’s belief.

You might start with a statement such as “Are you an owner of a website that has been built within the last five years?” Most prospects would fit this description. Just as importantly, you have started with a first step of agreement, “Yes, my website was built within the last five years.” Then you might then follow up with statements from experts:

Experts tell us…
• 80% of current websites owners are dissatisfied with their website
• Only 25% of website designers remain in business beyond three years
• Average webmasters charges $200.00 per hour to make website changes.

The prospect would probably nod in agreement with these expert statements based on their experiences. This makes sense to him. You might move the prospect forward with additional expert opinions:

The experts also tell us…
• Children in grade school are now building websites,
• New web software makes web changes as easy as word processing
• Websites updated monthly, experience a 20% increase in sales

If the prospect accepts these “expert facts”, he has now begun to move away from his old belief that only a professional can make website changes.

You may go on to restate your original promise. “The experts show that if you want to increase your sales you need to make monthly changes to your website. Software is now available that makes this as easily as operating Microsoft Word. You choose: pay $200 for each change or make the changes yourself.”

Do you see how you have moved the prospect to a point where if he wants more sales he needs to make monthly changes to his website. He can do this himself or spend $200 doing it. You have opened the door to the possibility of making the changes himself.

At his point you might add a testimonial “I have no formal computer training and yet I was able to use your XYZ home study program to create new changes to my website. I created a special monthly sales page on my website that takes me less than one hour each month. I increased my sales by 10% each month. I will continue to create these new monthly sales pages. I love your home study program.” Bob Smith, Atlanta Georgia.

This is a simple example on how your original promise of 20% increase in sales wouldn’t move the prospect because he did not believe this was possible for him to do. By taking the prospect on a journey with a sequence of smaller agreements, you changed his beliefs so he could see himself actually making the changes to his website. He now has embraced a new belief about himself and would be ready to buy. He believes you.

More on credibility in next blog entry. Your comments are welcomed...