The Trust Dividend

As you know, I bang on about the mission of B2B marketing to create ART (Awareness, Revenue, and Trust), and as part of that, the importance of building trust with the buyer to support growing awareness and revenue.

However, when we talk about trust, building internal trust is also critical to the success of our Revenue Department (the combined activities of marketing and sales).

In a low-trust environment, because nobody feels sure that the right stuff is getting done, every link in the revenue chain from marketing, through business development, to sales has to provide extensive reporting, attend many meetings, justifying their existence and contribution.

A low-trust environment also discourages risk-taking, so you are less likely to see innovative, bold marketing ideas that could create a distinct brand experience or campaign that could drive awareness and revenue.

If there is trust between sales and marketing, and between marketing and the leadership team, we can spend less time on internal-facing activities, such as attribution and reporting, and more time on external-facing activities, and do better work.

I’m thinking of this as the trust dividend.

I’m not suggesting there shouldn’t be reports, dashboards, and meetings; I love a good report, dashboard, and meeting. But, and this is highly situational, at some point, this internal naval-gazing will have diminishing returns.

Wouldn’t we all rather be enjoying the sizzle than the endless discussions about how the sausage is made?

I also think that, as new leaders entering an organization, it’s important to understand the level of trust within the organization.

Entering a low-trust environment, you won't be able to just discuss high-level goals and objectives from day one; you’ll need to show your work until you can drive change, informing your internal comms and reporting, which then becomes part of that first 90-day plan.

This will slow you down, but if you don't read the room at the beginning, it'll be harder later.

Building trust as part of that plan is not all kumbaya, team building, or a culture statement that says trusting each other is just the decent thing we do around here.

Maybe on a poster. With a kitten.

We can encourage trust through the less touchy-feely structural side of management, through things like:

• Shared, agreed, and well understood, measurable objectives, broken down to how each team contributes - nothing like owning a common goal to create team cohesion and trust.
• Process - yes, please stick with me - but having sales and marketing playbooks that make it clear who is doing what and by when removes the ambiguity where mistrust can breed.
• Transparent revenue operations reporting, not separated marketing and sales, or by marketing team or function.

As leaders, we can apply softer management skills while making these structural changes to create an environment where trust can thrive.

And then, cash in on the trust dividend.