If you’re starting a new firm or simply trying to build you’re firm’s online presence, you’ve likely heard one word a million times: credibility.
Credibility is about experience. What can you do if you don’t have much experience or feel like the experience you have isn’t enough?
Take Heart…
…we’ve all been there! We’ve all clawed our way out, and we’ve picked up some decent advice to share during the process:
- Be honest
- Don’t try to sound better than you are
- Don’t scam people
Now that you know the basics, let’s take a hard look at how to build your credibility and authority. It’s worth building because these two attributes, once recognized by your audience, will earn you respect and sales. But you’re going to have to prove your credibility before you earn it from your audience.
3 Ways to Build Credibility
We’re going to discuss three proven ways that you can build your credibility. The first revolves around honesty and doing the right thing.
1. Argue against yourself. You do this by letting people know up front who won’t benefit from your product or service. Does this sound counterproductive?
Well, it’s not. By openly letting the audience know who the product or service isn’t for, you show that you’re all about doing the right thing.
Don’t try to sell yourself as the “perfect fit for anyone.” This isn’t realistic. There’s no such thing as a product or a service that is all things to all people, and selling yourself this way will harm your credibility.
Take the time to know who you’re business isn’t for and talk about it openly. People will instantly see you as credible because you’re honest and open. It’ll also make it much easier to get people that are the right fit to hire you.
2. Use precise numbers. People believe precise facts. It’s easy to be lazy and round statistics or numbers up or down, but it also hurts your credibility.
For example, let’s say I specialize in tax return services. If I told you the customers who I filed taxes for received a return that was 5 percent higher than the average tax filer, and I then said I filed returns that were 5.3 percent higher than the average filer, which would you find more credible?
Precise numbers are automatically considered more credible by your audience. Use them whenever possible on your website and other marketing content.
3. Provide proof to back up your claims. It’s easy to spout opinions because all we have to do is state them and move on.
Building credibility and authority involves backing up your claims with proof. People can get opinions anywhere. They come to you for proven facts.
You can find and present the proof you need by:
- Using precise statistics and referencing where they hail from
- Inserting your own personal stories or stories from your customers
- Including testimonials from the people you work with
- Researching via authoritative academic and business sources and presenting the information with a source reference
- Finding and using professional or media-given accolades
Whether you’re new to the industry or packing years of experience, you can get more info on building credibility and getting better clients by reading our ebook, Accounting Firm Owners: The 7 Secrets You Must Know To Increase Profits in 2014.
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