Grow your credibility
“You have to build up a credibility before people will listen to your story”.
“If you don’t have credibility, you won’t get your customers to pick up the phone”
Credibility is inextricably linked to your knowledge.
When people first meet you, they assess you against the values they expect to see – are you average, above or below average and your credibility is assigned as a result.
People who have high credibility tend to get 3 great rewards
- They get promoted more frequently
- They earn more money
- They are happier in life
Happier in life is driven by the fact that if you can articulate a link between 3 random facts or words, your brain will release 3 hormones into your blood stream
Oxytocin
Provides feelings of love and trust, which is why relationships boost our happiness.
Serotonin
Boosts our mood and makes us more agreeable and sociable. Boosts self esteem
Dopamine
A “pleasure” hormone and is stimulated when we strive towards a goal. It helps motivate us to take action to achieve the goal so we can experience the pleasure of the reward.
So, if you want more people to listen to you and more customers to take your call – you need to build your knowledge base – build it wide and deep and constantly strive to make links between different threads of information.
Knowledge is a very wide subject
We suggest ‘the 7C’s of knowledge’ as a starting point for anyone in business who wants to drive their credibility [Link]
Knowledge is not fixed
Bear in mind that the knowledge axis is a continuum – “the more you know the more there is to know!”
Can you have too much Knowledge?
You may note that the exponential curve on the graph does NOT go to 10 – you can demonstrate too much knowledge – then you damage your credibility in a different way.
The trick is to work out where your contact/ customer is on the continuum and be just a little ahead of their expectations.
e.g. If your contact is a 4 [just below average in knowledge on a particular subject], you need to show just a 5 – if you expose a massive difference between their knowledge base and yours, they may see you as a “know-it-all” or a “Braggart” [a person who boasts about their achievements, knowledge or possessions]
As the world becomes increasingly complex, understanding how things link and how they might add value to your customers or consumers will be the difference between your customers taking your call and making time to see you or not!
The 7C’s of Knowledge
So, what are you doing to increase your knowledge and credibility of the 7Cs of knowledge?
- Country
- Company
- Customer
- Channel
- Category
- Consumer
- Competition
Get more details of what you might need to work on – have a quick 2 minute read [Here]
If you would like a FREE PDF worksheet, get more information [Here]
Credibility through Knowledge Masterclass
We also run a 1-day Masterclass to help your teams increase their credibility through their knowledge base – if this sounds interesting get in touch [Here] to start a conversation.