Trust creates demand — Kelford Labs Daily

Good friends of ours run a plumbing business.

And I recently realized that, because we know and trust them, we often have plumbing jobs for them.

What I mean is, things we might normally attempt to fix ourselves (or ignore), we don’t, because we have plumbers we trust.

In that way, being trustworthy creates demand for their services.

Or, I suppose more accurately, reveals it (or uncovers it, in Bob Moesta’s parlance).

We see this in our own clients: Because marketing is a field rife with what we’ll generously call dubious expertise, it’s hard to find someone you trust.

But once you do, you realize how much work you have for them, how many things they can help you with.

Our clients, once they see our work, realize how many more things we can do for them. Things they might otherwise have attempted to do themselves or decided wasn’t worth the stress or trouble to do at all.

This requires, of course, doing a good job. It requires having a good reputation.

And it requires a certain type of marketing, a certain type of signalling: One that demonstrates that you’re in it for the long haul, that you’re willing to stand behind your reputation and your work.

It requires you to make meaningful promises that you can keep.

We often tell our clients they don’t need us right now, because they can easily solve the problem themselves or it isn’t actually a problem to be solved. Because we know it’s better to tell the truth than get the work at any cost.

Which is also exactly what our friend just did for us: He took a look at our plumbing problem and realized it’s actually smaller than any of us thought, and might not need a major fix or replacement at all.

As you can guess, that only makes us trust them more, only makes us more likely to have them do the work if it becomes necessary.

And our clients, when we tell them they don’t need us, only become more certain they do.

Because when you trust someone, you realize all the ways they can help.

But when you don’t, there’s nothing you want them to do.

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