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🧐 Trust lag: stop losing sales to buyer skepticism [SAF #140]
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Hey Reader, Ever seen someone browse an online store, open five browser tabs, and start furiously cross-examining every claim a brand makes? Yeah, me neither. Totally never done that myself. (Ahem.) Look, let’s be honest: skepticism is the new baseline. Your potential buyers — your readers, clients, course-takers, whatever — don’t trust you by default. They open tabs, compare pricing, search reviews, and dissect your marketing promises like they're prepping for a courtroom drama. Why is this happening? Well, mainly because the internet trained us to question everything, and marketers trained us to doubt every promise. (Irony, you cruel mistress.) And as annoying as this may feel, it’s a good thing. Because when your buyers cross-examine you, it means they're engaged. They care enough to validate their interest. But here’s the problem: if your marketing funnel is designed assuming instant trust (ha!) or rapid conversion from cold traffic (double ha!), you've set yourself up for disappointment. The reality is a "trust lag," the gap between someone encountering your brand and feeling ready to opt in. Let’s talk about exactly how to close that gap — not with cheap persuasion tricks, but by creating smart, pre-funnel content that meets people exactly where their skepticism lives. The trust crisis: your buyers don’t trust you (and that could be great news)Before we jump to solutions, let’s quickly dissect the beast we're fighting. In 2024, trust hit an all-time low. Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer shows only 53% of people in the US (30% in China and 62% in Germany, for context) trust businesses to "do what is right," and marketing specifically ranks even lower (shockingly, politicians are still worse). People trust their peers more than brands, and why wouldn't they? We've all bought shiny, overhyped crap at least once. Worse yet, people hate ads. And, just because you’re not running ads on social media or search engines, it doesn’t mean that your audience can’t perceive a promotional post for what it is: an ad disguised in organic content. Does this mean you should stop promoting your products and services and hope people can read between the lines and just buy the damn thing? Absolutely not! It just means that you need to be a bit more strategic about it. Pre-funnel, not persuasion: four tactics to shorten trust lagInstead of treating your funnel like a persuasion gauntlet your audience must endure, treat it as a process of trust-building that begins before the funnel itself. Here’s how: 1. Open up your pricing (yes, seriously)Remember when hiding prices was trendy? You know, forcing people onto sales calls to get basic pricing info. Good times. Today, 74% of buyers want to see clear pricing upfront. Refusing to share prices until someone gives you their email—or god forbid, books a call—won’t make people feel intrigued. It'll piss them off. 62% of C-suite buyers say they are less likely to buy if the seller asks for contact information before disclosing price. So yeah, hiding your prices helps no one. Let’s fix this:
Speaking of FAQs, 2. Address skepticism upfront with FAQs (real ones, not fluff)Think your buyers aren’t cross-checking you? Of course they are! From 6-10 sources, to be precise. FAQs aren’t just for legal disclaimers and shipping times anymore. Make them your first defense against skepticism. This is your chance to address hesitations head-on before your prospect ever clicks "buy now" or "sign up." In your FAQ section, answer real doubts. Not "What’s your refund policy?" (though you should answer that too), but "Why should I trust you over competitor X?" or "Will this actually work for me?" 3. Go public with as much as possible from your business (warts and all)You know what breeds trust faster than perfect marketing? Authenticity. And not fake "here’s me drinking matcha at sunrise" authenticity — I mean, showing people you're willing to share your plans, your doubts, and your imagined future openly. The newsletter issues that get the most replies for me are those when I pull back the curtains on my business. Like this one, where I shared my launch playbook AND also explained what I messed up. Open roadmaps demonstrate you're confident enough in your offer to show its evolution transparently. 4. Tell them NOT to buySeriously! Help your audience pre-qualify themselves. Almost all my product pages have a “Do NOT buy this if…” section. It’s not your usual “don’t buy this if you want to stay poor” crap either. I give my audience solid reasons to nope out of a product or program because:
This works because people want to be in the right room, not just any room. When you clearly define who it’s not for, it strengthens the identity of who it is for, which boosts conversions. The better alternative: the kind of trust that doesn’t lag but sprints to buyEverything I wrote above applies to a cold-ish audience. If people don’t know you, they will research you before buying, and every misstep will deduct points from your trust bank. The alternative is selling exclusively to an audience that trusts you inherently. To people who can’t wait for you to launch something new, because they buy it without reading the landing page anyway. This is the dream for most solo founders and creators. While it’s not impossible, it takes a very long time. Just because someone follows you on social media or subscribes to your emails doesn’t mean that they trust you, BTW. And it takes even longer to gather a critical mass of people around your brand — enough so you can confidently launch every time. The best piece of advice I can offer you is NOT to rush this process. The marketing world is stuffed with gurus peddling Jedi mind tricks and dark patterns. But as skepticism grows, these tricks lose effectiveness, thankfully. But what if I lose leads to the shinier, less honest competitor?“If I open up about my flaws, if I say ‘this isn’t for everyone,’ if I stop pushing so hard... won’t people just buy from the louder, shinier guy who promises six figures in six weeks?” Here’s the truth: When you commit to clarity over hype, you’re not competing for the distracted, high-churn buyer. You’re building for the thoughtful one. The repeat one. The “tells their friends about you” one. And those buyers? They don’t just buy. They trust. And they return. Let’s break this down with some comparison, just so we’re clear on what’s actually happening. In the short term, the shiny funnel might hook more clicks. But long-term, the transparent one builds more sales. More referrals. More testimonials that don’t feel like hostage notes. So yes, you might lose a few leads. But you’ll keep more customers. And isn’t that the point? The hill I will die on is that trust is the best asset you can create for your business. I made it my manifesto — you can read it here. Use the playbook above if you don’t have that critical mass of people around your brand yet. Be as transparent as possible because your first buyers can become your first brand ambassadors — unless you try to play mind tricks on them. Now go build trust like you mean it.
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Strategic AF
Tired of marketing advice that’s either obvious or outright shady? Strategic AF flips the script. It's the only newsletter that treats solopreneurs, founders, and marketers like grown-ups, not toddlers looking for the next shiny toy. Subscribe to get sharp, no-nonsense strategy advice without the cringe. No bro-marketing, no fluff — just real, sustainable growth tactics. Subscribe if you want results. Scroll past if you prefer gimmicks.
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