We all know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but let’s face reality here…we all do it, and that is certainly true in business. In business credibility is everything as it directly affects your ability to convert prospects into clients. People’s perception of your credibility will be based on several factors including your appearance, what you say, how you behave, and what they hear about you from other sources.
If you were meeting someone for the first time what would you want their perception to be of you? Now think about how someone might assess you when they first meet you. Is there a gap?
In business there are numerous credibility factors that we all need to be aware of. We all know the obvious ones so I’m going to talk about the more subtle elements of each of them rather than bore you with stuff that is obvious. The main ones are:
- Appearance: How is your appearance reflecting on you? I sometimes find it’s the little things that can make a big difference. For instance if you are taking notes in a meeting what are you writing them on and with. A Bic biro and a scrappy notebook don’t look good. Do your business cards support your credibility or sabotage it? Do they ben at the edges! Are you dressed in a way that makes you look successful or that you are struggling for money?
- Behaviour: Turning up late and flustered is never a good start. Are you organised and can find the brochure you want to leave with them? Is it battered from being in your bag for too long. Do you adhere to the actions you agree to in meetings?
- Knowledge: Do you sound confident and knowledgeable without being arrogant. Simply put…do you talk from a position of knowledge or does it come over that you have gaps in your knowledge? You can’t be expected to know everything but what’s important is that you can skilfully manoeuvre through things you don’t know.
- Testimonials: Testimonials are great credibility factors, and so are stories about how you helped clients deal with situations. The more testimonials and stories you have the more credibility you gain. This doesn’t mean that you have zero credibility when you first start out but it does mean you need to think carefully about how you can generate credibility in those early meetings.
- Marketing material. Do you have the material to back up your pitches? Is it high quality? Is your website up to date? How about your LinkedIn profile? What email address do you use? What does that email address say about your business? Personally I really don’t like businesses using hotmail/gmail/yahoo etc email addresses as it decreases their credibility. The vast majority of business have websites so it’s really easy to get an email address with the say domain and it’s inexpensive too (it’s usually part of the cost of someone hosting your website).
As you can imagine the list could go on and on. Have a quick think about how you need to generate credibility in your interactions and importantly how you can improve the level of credibility that you currently have.