Callum Laing The Value of Free, the Power of Easy and the Cost of Trust.........
The below model was developed in conjunction with hundreds of sport, fitness and health businesses we work with.
However, it is equally applicable across most industries.
The Cost of Trust: Essentially no one is going to buy your product or service if they don’t trust you. I like the New York
cartoon caption, “On the Internet no one knows you’re a dog.”
Or more aptly, no one knows you're a very nice organisation. Simple enough: no trust, no sales. And of course
the converse is true. When people do trust you they go way beyond just being customers. There is no advocacy
without trust.
Trust is fundamental to Capitalism. As a business owner investing time to understand how to create and deepen trust
is a wise investment. Understand that trust does have a cost. What are you prepared to pay to gain the trust of your
prospects so that you can take the relationship to the next level?
The Power of Easy: I love one of billionaire Richard Branson’s sayings, “Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make
something complicated. It is hard to make something simple”.
In Internet Marketing parlance, professionals refer to the ease of ‘on boarding’ your prospect. How easy is it for
someone to start a relationship with you? In many cases business people are in a hurry to ‘marry’ the customer and
forget to ‘flirt’ or date them first.
Your product may need a complex registration or setup process, but perhaps you can create a pre-product first? What
is the absolutely easiest way that someone could start a relationship with your brand? How could you make it even
easier? Where is the risk for them in starting the relationship and could you reduce or take that risk completely away?
The Value of Free: I had a business partner many years ago that despised the concept of giving anything away for free.
To him it diminished value in our company, tarnished the brand and was an ‘easy out’ option compared to actually
selling our products and services.
All pretty compelling reasons for not giving things away and yet my own thinking changed a full 180 degrees. Free
trials, whether of a fitness service, software or anything else, are one of the most effective ways to build trust in your
prospects' minds. Even if they don't become customers, once they have used the service they can become advocates
or raving fans.
The Future: There can be a huge gap between knowing this philosophically and implementing it effectively. Just
because you give something away for free doesn't mean people will use it. And when they do, a failure to manage
expectations can upset even the best laid plans.
Yet, I can't imagine a future where your clients would ever choose the opposite of the three pillars of this model.
To get a glimpse of the future it’s worth looking at the fast growing mobile app market. 90% of apps make their money
from in app purchases. Free and simple to download, use it, build trust and then generate revenue.
Getting there takes time and persistence, but constantly striving to give away more value creates more trust and
making life simpler should result in many more customers through the door of your business in 2014.
Callum Laing is the founder and CEO of Fitness-Buffet, an
aggregated fitness services company that serves the employees of
clients in 11 countries. Callum has built, bought or sold more than
half a dozen businesses across multiple industries and two
continents. He, his wife and two children live in Singapore.
[email protected] | Twitter.com/laingcallum |
http://www.fitnessbuffet.com