There’s a disconnect about trust and authenticity on the Internet that gives you the opportunity to be a veritable “superhero” in your customers’ eyes. Let me explain.
Back in the day (i.e. pre-Web), anonymity was considered disreputable. The general opinion, in business and elsewhere, was that anybody who wasn’t willing to sign their name simply wasn’t credible. Today, on the Internet, anonymity has become a sign of “authenticity” - a real voice from a real person.
How did anonymity suddenly become respectable? I think it’s the result of three related trends.
- The decline of independent journalism. An ever-larger amount of output from the mainstream media is taking the form of “advertorial” content. Some of it is explicit (in the form of paid articles) but much of it is implicit, as when a magazine runs articles complimentary of a big advertiser. People simply don’t trust the news media as much as they did in the past. Rightly so.
- The rise of advocacy research. Advocacy research consists of data and conclusions promoted to support a previously-held opinion. Unfortunately, since even real scientists must now go, hat in hand, to businesses for research funding, it becomes almost impossible to differentiate between what’s real science and what’s financially-motivated pseudo-science.
- The SPAM explosion. In the business world, the flood of SPAM takes the form of an endless weasel words, jargon and biz-blab. Because corporate PR types now control all the “messaging” that comes from a company, readers automatically (and rightly) assume that corporate communications (i.e. the non-anonymous ones) are collections of self-serving yada-yada-yada.
As a result of these trends, the business public no longer trusts “expert” sources. Drowning in a sea of inauthenticity, business folks are dying to hear authentic “voices” that aren’t packaged, staged and phony. It’s not surprising, therefore, that so many people are pre-disposed to trust some anonymous “voice” rather than one associated with a corporation, research group, industry association, or mainstream publication.
Ironically, business folk who trust anonymous sources are setting themselves up to be snookered. The apotheosis of anonymity, Wikipedia, is full of “anonymous” updates that are actually from corporate and political sock-puppets. (Check out: Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits and Wikinews investigates Wikipedia usage by U.S. Senate staff members). And there’s plenty of sock-puppetry going on elsewhere on the web, as well.
For example, a sock-puppet creacted by John P. Mackey, the co-founder of Whole Foods Market, posted over a thousand entries on Yahoo Finance’s bulletin board, many of which criticized a competitor, Wild Oats Markets. Mackey is now under an SEC investigation, but that’s only because he was stupid enough to get caught - but only after seven years of posting.
What does this have to with B2B sales? Plenty.
This desperate craving for authenticity is the B2B sales rep’s greatest ally. If prospects are so desperate that they’ll trust random bozos on a business forum, they’re going to jump at the chance to put their trust into real-life human beings (that’s YOU!) who are willing to put their own jobs on the line.
Since B2B sales is all about relationships, you have to be “real” to do it well, or even adequately. By being genuine (and not a mouthpiece for your marketing geeks), by being honest (and not a shill for your industry), by being responsive (and working issues in your firm as needed), you truly can become a “trusted advisor.”
And in a world full of BS “experts,” sock-puppets and online low-life, that makes you into a superhero by comparison, my friend.
