Earning Trust with Customers Starts with Internal Teams

I had a great experience working for Amazon from 2014 to 2017. I got to do cool things alongside really smart, dynamic people. I also lived for the leadership principles. I enjoyed the simple fact that they existed, were clearly articulated, and were demonstrated at all levels of the company. 

Some of the leadership principles were no-brainers for me from day one. I had always been hungry for new opportunities to increase my experience and scope, and so the principle of ownership really resonated with me. I was also very comfortable making data-informed decisions, and so I was excited by a culture that encouraged employees to dive deep, but also have bias for action. 

Ultimately, the principle that has made the biggest ongoing impact on my personal and professional development is the ability to earn trust. I consider myself to be a polite, amicable person, but learned that it can take a lot more than politeness to earn the type of trust that makes real cross-functional collaboration possible.

Marketing, at its core, is the practice of earning trust with consumers. Trust that a brand will deliver on the lifestyle it’s promising. Trust that a product will be as functional and/or valuable as the marketing messaging describes. Trust that a signup or onboarding experience will be smooth. Trust that personal data will be secure. And the list goes on and on. 

While the marketing team can develop a trust-worthy brand identity, messaging platform, and customer journey, multiple other internal stakeholders are responsible for building the end-to-end customer experience that earns and cements customer trust. 

For this trust network to function externally (i.e. for the consumer’s benefit), it must first exist internally. Marketing, product, business strategy, legal, creative teams and more must all trust each other’s analysis, communication and work product in order to collectively deliver. 

So how does the principle of “earn trust” work in practice? Per Amazon, leaders who earn trust:

…listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.

I’ll add to this with a few recommendations from my own experience in earning trust:

• Leaders should be confident in their knowledge, experience and abilities, but must also be receptive to new ways of thinking. They shouldn’t assume that “the way it worked” for a different company/team/campaign will automatically apply to a new situation. Listen first, then lead.

• Earning trust takes time. Be patient and keep working at relationships that are challenging. As you demonstrate your value to a stakeholder, the ability to collaborate will get easier. 

• Take ownership. “Get in the trenches.” Of course you need to be careful not to overextend yourself, but if you demonstrate that you’re a team player who is willing to go outside of your scope to get the job done, you are likely to earn stakeholder trust. 

The function of marketing cannot be successful in a silo. Customers don’t care about the inner workings of a company, they just expect a brand they trust to deliver from all angles. If you focus first on earning the trust of those around you, you will be better placed to deliver a trust-worthy experience to the customers you serve.