Building a credible business

Most people who watch a film are prepared to suspend belief and just enjoy the movie even if the premise is incredulous. However, when parting with their hard-earned cash to buy your product they need to believe in you, your business, your product and your service. And, the larger the purchase price the greater the need for trust that you can provide them with what they want. Can they gain that trust just from your marketing efforts? Your telesales? Your direct mail? Your brochures? Your social media content? Your website? It is unlikely and you know the old saying “Talk is cheap. Actions speak”.

So, in order to gain someone’s trust you need “Credibility”. But what does this mean for you, your industry, your service or product?

According to Tom Wanek in his book “Currencies that buy Credibility” there are six sources of credibility:

Sources of credibility

Financial Risk
Effort
Niche
Control
Reputation
Safety

1. Financial Risk

If a customer needs to invest in your product or service are you also prepared to take a financial risk? This is where money back guarantees comes from. For example: “If you’re disappointed in our product, return the product at any time for a full refund.” Think about the guarantees you can offer but don’t just copy your competitors really explore what you can offer to reduce your customers’ financial risks.

2. Effort

How much time and energy have you put into your product or service? And have you explained this to your customers and prospects? It may be obvious to you about the time and energy that goes into producing your product or service, but it will definitely not be obvious to them. Have you had to spend many years to gain qualifications, skills and experience? Have you gone to extraordinary lengths or travelled the furthest corners of the world to source the best products?

What goes into crafting your product from raw materials to the beautiful product that your customer sees? What is that journey? This is a story people want to hear. So, tell them.

3. Niche

Remember the old saying “Jack of all trades, master of none”? It is tempting to sell your products or services to anyone with a pulse but you will be competing with other suppliers who perhaps only deal with very specific customers and therefore have very specialist skills and knowledge in that customer’s needs. Those niche suppliers have much greater credibility in that market to those customers. Customers who want to feel special and deal with a supplier who is “the expert” are prepared to pay more for that privilege. Have you lost business to a competitor who is more expensive than you? Having a niche is a massive subject all by itself but it is certainly worth considering how you can present your expertise in a fewer number of products or services.

4. Control

In the pursuit of efficiency and productivity companies have tried to control every aspect of their businesses including how they interact with their customers, whether that is the sales process, delivery times, minimum order values etc. You could argue that Amazon’s success is due to their focus on the customer experience and making the customer feel that they have total control.

5. Reputation

If a brand becomes well known, it gathers momentum faster and faster because its repetition in the marketplace creates recognition and the assumption of credibility. So, repetition of your brand into your marketplace helps gain credibility and the theory is that you need to be “seen” at least 7 times before your name becomes familiar. If your brand is seen in lots of different places and at lots of different times it has a multiplying effect. However, don’t forget reputations can be ruined very quickly, take for example Ratner whose value dropped off a £500m cliff when in 1991 Gerald Ratner stated in public that he sold “total crap” and in particular “sold a pair of earrings for under a pound, which is cheaper than a shrimp sandwich from Marks and Spencer but probably wouldn’t last as long”. This is now known as “the Ratner effect” and “doing a Ratner” now means really messing up.

6. Safety

How credible would you see a company if the Managing Director was prepared to be shot to prove that his bullet proof vest worked. In 1971 a guy called Richard Davis shot himself at point blank range wearing a new vest made of Kevlar. His business Second Chance went on to make him a multi-millionaire. Or Elisha Otis who in 1853 put his own life on the line to prove that his elevator brake worked at a time when elevator ropes were made from hemp and often broke. Otis elevator sales in 2017 were £9 billion.

How Wood and Disney have built credibility into the core of their business

We have looked seriously at our own business and created the following Credibility Triangle:

1. Qualifications and Professionalism

Wood and Disney believe that a firm foundation of qualifications is essential for accountants. Sadly, the term accountant is not regulated so you have no guarantee that your accountant has any formal qualifications at all unless (s)he shows you evidence. Unqualified accountants just hope you never ask. Wood and Disney are Chartered Accountants and strictly regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Not only have we had to study for many years to achieve our qualifications we have to maintain regular ongoing professional education to ensure we continue to be up to date. It costs tens of thousands of pounds to train a chartered accountant so there is a significant financial cost for us to continue to train our team.

2. Experience & Innovation

The second stage is the experience gained which adds to the qualifications. Over the years we learn more from courses, workshops, seminars and of course from those more experienced that we work with. Over time this experience adds to our value as long as we are open to learning new things as each year passes. Ask any member of the Wood and Disney team about the changes they have witnessed while working for Wood and Disney and they will tell you that we never stand still and are always looking for ways to improve and add value to our clients. Our efforts over the years have included:

bringing in in an American Management consulting tool and rewriting it for the UK market in 1993
creating a database of financial calculators and ratios based upon the 1990s Trouble-shooter series lead by Sir John Harvey Jones.
working with three other accountancy firms to create the Association of Profit Advisors in 1989.
launching the first cloud-based business advisory website in 2002 called Plus4Business.
becoming a paperless office in 2003.
being the first in Essex to use cloud accounting in 2008.
using multiple Apps to help our clients become more efficient and profitable.
launching Your Journey to Freedom in 2019 our updated and improved business growth process.

3. Personalism

People want to deal with people. If you don’t understand someone because they speak another language, then how can you take their advice. Accountants are notorious for speaking in accountancy jargon which to many is a foreign language. We have a no jargon policy at Wood and Disney. We have also gone through the stage of having a future vision of being a virtual nationwide firm of accountants and have come back to the importance of being both local and personal. Being available. Being approachable. Being easy to talk to. Clients need to be willing to divulge intimate financial knowledge about both their business and their personal wealth. No one wants to give this information to a robot or an accountant who acts like a robot.

4. Respect

Every client is unique, and we will not treat you like a number. Wood and Disney will always treat you with respect and trust that you will treat us in the same way. We will be polite and responsive to your needs. If you don’t understand something, we will try different ways to explain it, so you do understand. By communicating with you more often we will be more aware of your challenges and be more thoughtful in spotting opportunities to help you. Finally, we believe it is important to be kind and we reflect that in our regular charity giving via B1G1 to impact on the lives of those less fortunate.

5. Trust

To be your trusted business advisor is our ultimate goal. Wood and Disney get to know your intimate financial knowledge and you need to be sure that we keep that knowledge secure. Our commitment to achieving and maintaining the international standard for information security (ISO27001) is tangible evidence of our dedication. This standard is no lightweight commitment in that it has cost us tens of thousands of pounds to achieve and continues to represent a high cost in maintaining it. More subjective trust elements are that we would not advise you to do something if we would not do it ourselves. We would not advise you to do something unless we felt strongly that it was beneficial to you. Wood and Disney are committed to helping you achieve both security and success.