Use The Trust Equation To Build More Trust With Your Ideal Clients

Your personal brand is the relationship that you’ve built with your ideal clients. Trust is the foundation of any relationship. The Trust Equation is a powerful tool you can use to enhance trust in your relationships and your personal brand.

What exactly is trust? When I trust somebody, I have a reasonable expectation that they:

• Are actually good at what they claim to be good at

• Show up for me when I need them

• Are honest with me about who they are

• Care about me and my well-being

At an intuitive level, does that feel right to you?

The Trust Equation

The Trust Equation takes these intuitive ideas and translates them into a framework that anyone can use to build more trust; whether between teams at work, in a personal relationship, or in a brand.

The Trust Equation is built on four components, all of which combine together to generate trust.

Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Openness) / Self-orientation

Let’s go over each of these.

1. Credibility: These are all of the external markers that you can demonstrate. Your degrees, certifications, credentials, social proof (testimonials), case studies are some ways that you can demonstrate your credibility.

2. Reliability: Do you show up consistently for someone? Do you do what you promise to do? Are you known for doing good work every time? Do you communicate regularly with them?

3. Openness/Vulnerability: Are you open about who you are as a person? Do you share things that are hard or possibly embarrassing for you, or like to maintain a veneer of perfection?

4. (Lack of) Self-orientation: Do you put others before yourself? Are you in a relationship because you genuinely care about the other person? Are you sometimes willing to forgo your own interests to help the other person?

Three ways to use the Trust Equation in your personal brand

1. Understand your own preferred trust component

Trust is a two-way street. You want your clients to trust you, but you’ll also do your best work with clients who you trust.

Which of the four components resonated most with you? While we use all these components as signals of trust, most of us have one, possibly two of these components that we primarily rely on when we decide to trust someone.

Perhaps you are drawn to people with explicit markers of expertise: degrees, position of authority, social proof (Credibility)

Or maybe you want to see whether they do smaller things for you well before trusting them with bigger things (Reliability)

Or you like people who show up more as themselves and share personally, because you see that as a signal of honesty (Openness)

Or you want to feel that they are focused on you and not bringing their own agenda into the picture (Lack of self-orientation)

Your preferred trust component is the one that you will also want to use when building trust with others. It’s your default. For example, if you trust others when they’re more open and vulnerable with you, your default might be to be open and vulnerable with your potential clients.

2. Lead with your ideal client’s preferred trust component

Here’s the thing, your preferred trust component may not be the same as that of your ideal client.

This is a mistake we often make in personal and professional relationships. We assume that the way we choose to trust others is the same way that others choose to trust us.

But that’s not true at all.

As a personal brand, you need to understand your ideal client’s primary trust component and make sure you express yourself in a way that they will see and hear you.

Have you thought about who your ideal client might be? If not, now might be the time to go back and reflect on that.

• Who do you love working with?

• Who is drawn to working with you?

• Why do you love working with each other?

Once you have identified your ideal client niche, ask yourself, Why do these clients trust me? Is there something in common across them that they’re drawn to? What is their preferred Trust component?

You want to make sure you lead with that preferred component.

If your clients are drawn to Credibility, then you may want to highlight your credibility markers front and center of your brand. If your ideal clients are drawn to Openness, then make sure to share more of your personal journey in your marketing.

For example, a friend of mine who’s a leadership coach realized that her clients are drawn to her because of her experience as a management consultant and a professor at Harvard. For her ideal clients, Credibility is the preferred trust component. Guess what? The first thing on her LinkedIn profile and website is about her experience working at a high-status consulting firm and teaching at Harvard.

Just because you lead with your ideal client’s preferred Trust component, does that mean you’re done? No.

Not all of your clients will share that preferred component. Also, nobody makes buying decisions based on only one piece of evidence. The preferred Trust component is meant to help you decide what you lead with, but you have to address the others.

3. Cover all four components of Trust in your branding materials

You’ve identified your ideal client and their preferred Trust component, but what about the other three components?

I recommend that you use your branding and marketing materials to cover all four components of Trust, leading with the one preferred by your most ideal clients.

Where and how do you share these elements of Trust? Think about the following:

• Your LinkedIn headline: Focus on your ideal client’s preferred Trust component here.

• Your LinkedIn bio: This is an opportunity to cover all four components of Trust. Share your credibility markers, your repeatable results showing how reliable you are, your personal journey to demonstrate openness, and your WHY to showcase your commitment to your client. Write in your own voice.

• Your website and socials: Different sections of your website, as well as the design elements, can be used to address the components of trust. Mix and match your photos, copy and even the different tabs on your site to showcase different sides of yourself. Give your clients the chance to trust you, regardless of which trust component they prefer.

Exercise: Use the Trust Equation for your own brand

Answer these questions and share.

1. What is my own preferred Trust component?

2. What is my ideal client’s preferred Trust component?

3. How can I address all four Trust Equation components in my brand?

   • Convey my credibility markers

   • Show my consistent, reliable work ethic and results

   • Be open, honest and authentic

   • Demonstrate my commitment to serving them

Bonus: Share your answers with me, and get a free 30-minute brand trust audit

You might be wondering, “So what do I do next?”

Here’s one way I can help you. Send me your answers to the exercise above, and I’ll be delighted to get on a call with you to share my impressions of your brand.

Bring your website, your LinkedIn profile or any other materials you already have. I’ll go over them with you, and provide my genuine reactions to them in an honest, kind way. You’ll walk away with 3-5 concrete things you can do right away that will help you build more trust with YOUR ideal clients.

Ready for that?