Before People Buy From You, They Have To Buy You

Don’t get me wrong. When I mean buying You, it’s not that people pay money and take you home. What I mean is you need to build trust before they decide to buy. How would they if they don’t.

That’s why I always try to personally respond to every emails and messages. For me, this is one of the ways to build trust.

I am generally not a natural salesman, I prefer marketing rather than sales, but it doesn’t hurt to learn and keep learning.

I’ve been in the business of book and magazine rental when I was 11 years old. Not that hard actually, because I was living in a small town and many of my friend’s parents didn’t subscribe children’s magazines for their kids that time. And since the market are my own friends, I need to be flexible, so they can continue to rent. I did earn a bit of cash that let me buy things kids like. It did not last long, but it was the first business experience I had.

The second entrepreneurship moment I had is in creative design field started 15 years ago. The business is still in operation until now. Building a creative design business is definitely not easy, especially when internet is still considered new technology when I start. Also, I didn’t sell physical products, but intangible services in graphic and web design. I learnt much more experience those years, approaching companies, a lot of meetings and doing presentations for decision makers.

One important thing I learnt is I need to assure those people I want to sell my services to. Encourage them in opening a new channel they haven’t had before. I need to make them trust me that it will improve their brand image and increase their sales. Practically, I need them to buy me before buying the solutions I offer.

The third moment I had is when investing in a restaurant business. It’s also something I’ve never been doing before. Since it is a new venture, me and my partner need to build customer’s trust. We need good branding, good food and good service, so we put them as our main priorities. We went down introducing our products, ourselves and find time to chat with customers, asked them whether they like our food and whether they are satisfied with our services. We would keep their advices and fix what is necessary. By doing so, more than half of them become our loyal customers.

Building trust is a must-do if you want to grow your business. If you read the stories above, you will notice there are three ways to build trust:

Create good brand
Give customers the best we could
Be honest and authentic

So, let them buy you. But be honest of what you’re selling and help them when they need. I believe if you can provide these to your customers, they will buy from you happily.