For years I misunderstood how trust actually works and naively imagined it's about doing good, being serious, and delivering what was promised. While this is important, it was not enough. So what's enough ? We are engineers we need a number !

📚 The Zero Moment of Truth

I discovered this concept first from Daniel Priestly (Key Person of Influence) which referred to a research Google made "The Zero Moment of Truth", marketers started to call it "The 7-11-4 Rule" (which typically states that potential buyers spend 7 hours researching , use 11 sources , and visit 4 different locations ). The scholars here can read this / Credits to Sophie Lüttish​

I want to call for our context "The Earned Trust Formula "Regardless of whether we are employees, self-employed or business owners : we are selling. Selling our time/energy (employees), our expertise (self-employed), our products and services (business owners). So when I mention "Selling/Buying" think "Hiring" for employed and self-employed members.

Why it matters?

As an engineer I have to train my communication 💪🏼 muscle, so that when I share my ideas, my projects, my offer, my expertise ... people who want it trust me enough to "act" by buying. What took me ages to realize, is that there is an emotional journey buyers go into beyond making a purchase, and if I think about it, it's the same I go through when I am buying something for myself :

• Early stage of the sale : the buyer is risk seeking, in other words excited about the vision of the future, what this [solution | product | expertise] can do for them. They dream, before getting there.
• Late stage of the sale : when it's time to put the credit card in, and pay ... the buyer gets risk-averse.

The mistake as I do as an engineers, is being too rational in the early stages of the sale. It's a no brainer ! it makes sense, you buy for $500, and you get 10x in ROI. I learned this could kill an opportunity in the egg. Especially when I think of myself as humble, serious and trustworthy. Because I know that about myself, so I don't understand when other people don't trust me....... And it's just because :

1. I project my own vision of myself (and my creation) onto them
2. I haven't earned their trust yet.

How could the 7-11-4 work for us?

Humans can only process and remember a finite number of people. It's around 150, the Dunbar's number. People we can maintain relationship with. So when we are a nobody to someone, we have to realize we are in competition with 150 pre-existing relationship already getting their attention. So, for someone new, we need to earn their attention and trust, by building up the relationship account. So, a one-shot campaign won't make it, a big deal ad won't cut it, hiring a sales director won't solve it.

What the study shows is that it takes any human who doesn't know you, your expertise, your product/service (on average) at least 7hours (time) of exposure to it, seeing it 11 times (frequency) and in 4 different locations (or touchpoints). Think about how you become friends with someone : you see each other over a long periods of time, often and in different contexts (school, cinema, online game, Facebook) for example.

It works the same in business, before someone can actually develop trust, which is not something you can accelerate there is an incompressible amount of time, frequency and context needed to build trust.

That's why companies create content, politicians go on long form podcasts, and experts organize webinars. Some of it is 1 to 1 (private coaching, phone call, lunch, coffee break) , some of it can be leveraged 1 to many and in asymmetric ways. That's the power of : books, community, social media, workshops, podcasts ...

Trust requires consistency :

• Time-tested Consistency. A famous politician planned the long-for podcast game that made a +3h30 deposit on his electors. Any human can hold himself for 45 min, 1 hour, maybe 2h in an interview but 3h+. In that time human can detect all the non-linguistic flaws in character, worldview ...
• Frequency-tested : Once might be luck, twice still could be luck, 3 times similar output/outcomes starts to build, 11 times ... solid. [🙋🏻‍♂️ I fail at this with my newsletter's weekly frequency !]
• Touchpoint-tested : you know when some looks amazing on YouTube then you meet them in real-life and you are put off ? So, the two points above while helping, without consistency in enough different contexts trust can break. Some American (not only) business men when hiring a critical employee or partner, they organize a diner with the spouses. If they spot an awkward behavior in the presence of a spouse, the person who knows very well that candidate without the mask, it can be the ultimate go / no go signal for a business relationship.

So, what can you do about it ?

Once you know your WHO, your avatar, your ideal customer profile, your buyer, your ideal employer. Ask yourself how can we create actions and content that increase that 3-part counter to get to 7-11-4 with each one in the most effective way. And it may be your Earned Trust Formula. Hours (H) | Frequency (F) | Touchpoints (T)

Here's mine :

• Newsletter : if you read my 5-min newsletter (40 weeks per year) [H: +3h30 | F : +40 | T: +1]
• Events : if you assist at one of my 90 min webinars [H:+1h30 | F: +1 | T: +1]
• Free Community : if you interact with me on the free community for one month [H:+4h | F:+10 | T:+1]
• Social Media : if you interact with my LinkedIn posts / comments and chats [H:+0h01 | F:+1 | T:+1]
• YouTube (work in progress) : my first 4h+ masterclass "Talk to Don't Exist" coming soon. [H:+4h | F:+1 | T:+1]

So, it looks like that even without the YouTube Masterclass, I have the environment to get beyond [7h | 11x | 4 places]

So what are you doing to help people get exposed to your message, your expertise, your product ?