Many B2B deals stall or collapse late in the sales process due to buyers perceiving risk, even when they believe the company is competent. In this enlightening discussion, they dive into the critical concept of reliability, which sits at the intersection of competence and integrity. Buyers need to feel that a company will deliver consistent and predictable outcomes before they can confidently commit. Throughout the episode, they highlight that it’s not just about having a great product or competitive pricing; rather, it’s about ensuring that buyers clearly see the path forward once they say yes. Listeners will learn to recognize common signals of low reliability and how to address these gaps by improving communication around processes, expectations, and milestones, ultimately paving the way for more predictable revenue and fewer late-stage deal losses.

Takeaways:

1. Reliability is the cornerstone of trust; without it, buyers hesitate even if competence is established.
2. Buyers often stall deals, perceiving higher risk, especially with smaller B2B companies.
3. Clear communication of processes and expectations can significantly reduce perceived buyer risks.
4. Inconsistent messaging and unclear next steps signal low reliability, impacting closing rates.
5. A lack of shared standards across teams leads to buyers feeling uncertain and hesitant to commit.
6. Founders must recognize that building reliability is essential for scalable growth and trust transference.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Forrester
2. Trust Leader

Welcome to another episode of Lead with Trust.

My name is Hannah Eisenberg and I am so glad you're here because in today's episode we are talking about reliability.

And reliability is a crucial component in building trust.

Specifically the fact based cognitive trust that a buyer has to feel in order to make the first purchase from you.

Now, last episodes we talked all about competence and how do you actively demonstrate or believably communicate your competence?

In this episode we're seamlessly going into taking this can they actually do this into will they do this again consistently, independently?

And can we depend essentially, can we depend on them to deliver the same outcome for us as well?

That is a question that is nagging buyers.

So much so that a lot of times, even if the entire sales process went fantastic until a certain point, they will start ghosting you, they will stall, they will hesitate because they're trying to manage risk and they believe that you're competent, but they're not really sure that that you're reliable.

And that costs founder led businesses a lot of deals.

Forrester has published a report saying that 43% of B2B buyers make defensive choices, meaning they choose the safer, often bigger competitor, even if it's not the best choice for them, feature wise or fit wise over the better choice because the other one felt safer.

So they're making defensive choices because they're not really sure they can manage that risk.

And that is what reliability does.

It really helps us to reduce the perceived risk that a buyer has.

And if we reduce that risk that the buyer feels, we are going to have shorter sales cycles, improved close rates and higher revenue.

Now in this episode, I want to define what reliability is and what it isn't.

And I want to be really clear of how does it look like when you are what I call have emergent reliability, right?

You're not building reliability or communicating reliability at the level that your customer is expecting it.

And by the way, don't get scared.

About 90, 95% of the companies that I work with, you know, or I talk to on a regular basis fit exactly in that category.

So most people out there are not building reliability in that way.

We're going to look at what that actually looks like in this episode.

And after this episode you will be not only able to clearly define reliability and know how it differs from consistency and dependability, but you will know how this shows up in your business where the gaps are.

And we will start to discuss of how you can actually tackle those and what it looks like.

If you have shown and clearly communicated reliability in your business and how it will impact your growth and your scalability.

And honestly, you personally as a founder.

So stick with me until the end of the video.

It will be well worth your time.

Now, in the last episode, we talked a lot about competence.

And I want to make sure that I start this episode by quickly putting this into context.

So in my book, Lead with Trust, and in the work that I do here at Trust Leader, we talk a lot about the trust leader framework.

And we talk about this framework and trust building as a compounding journey, because trust building is not some random accidental thing that happens without you being able to do it.

Here at Trust Leader, we build trust intentionally and systematically.

And we're using this compounding journey to do this in a logical way that, yeah, it compounds, right?

So the competence, being able to actively demonstrate your competence is, is the first step of the first phase of the trust framework.

And here we're really showing that we have the ability, we have the capability, we have the expertise, the know how, the machines, everything, to deliver the thing that we said we're going to do.

And that answers the question of can they do their thing, which is fundamental, right?

Every buyer needs to know that.

But once they answered that question, now they have another question, and that is, if they have the capability and if they have the competence to do the thing, will they now do this for us in the future as well?

And that is a really crucial moment.

And we're going to discuss this today, but I want to put it in context with the full thing, because the next step then is integrity.

And that is will the company, if they do the thing and they do so for us, will they also treat us correct or do the right thing if it costs them or if something goes wrong or if it's hard for them?

Okay, so all these three steps are the first three cornerstones of what I call fundamental trust.

That is the trust that has to be built in order for someone to make the first purchase, have the first actual experience with your brand on a product or service basis.

From there, we can deepen our trust into emotional and relationship based trust and we can grow an audience.

From there we can do a lot of other things, but this is a foundational cornerstone we have to have and we must put in place solidly before moving on.

So everything else we built on top of it sits on a solid foundation.

Now, in today's episode, we're really talking about how does reliability fit into here?

And I want you to be able to recognize at the end of this episode, what does that look like?

To not do it so well or not at the level yet that your customers are experiencing?

What can I do and how will that change my business?

So competence gets you considered.

Reliability determines whether trust is scalable.

We're going to get to that in a second.

And integrity will then boost that confidence that people have gotten and cement that trust and set the bridge or set the gateway for emotional relationship trust that actually keeps customers long term with you and increases your profit.

Okay, so what does it look like if your company is in that emergent reliability?

Well, for inside the company, a lot of times what I see is that outcomes depend on individuals and not the system.

So it really matters.

Who do you get to work with that day?

Or a lot of software companies I worked with in the past, they will make a big contract very much dependent on having their key developer work with that particular customer and make solutions only for them.

But all in all, that doesn't depend on the systems and the processes.

It really depends on the person you're working with and it's not a scalable solution.

So while in the startup phase, that's completely normal.

At some point when you get to 2,3 million, that is not a scalable model anymore.

And you will hit a growth ceiling if you will continue to do that.

So you need to build reliable systems and processes and you need to systemize that trust in terms of building community, building reliability.

Right.

There's also, there can't be an attitude of we'll figure it out as we go.

And I see that a lot of times that sales sometimes will promise something and then operations and delivery have to figure out how do I, how do we do the thing that sales just put out there just to get the deal?

Sometimes this ends up in, we make the same promises to different clients and it ends up in a very different execution.

So going back to it depends on who you work with, depends on the circumstances of the company that day.

But that shouldn't happen when you are a scalable company that wants to really 10x and grow.

So it's really important to put those reliable processes and steps in place.

I also see a lot of times that the founder has to step in to either rescue the deal or smooth things over with the customer just to like keep them on and try to work it out with them, try to make some compromises.

I see that teams are really working hard, but because there's no defined standards or processes, they're inconsistent.

And the processes only exist in people's heads.

There's no documented SOPs.

There's no templates, there's no playbooks.

It's sort of this salesperson does that, this salesperson does that.

This salesperson is that.

Now, while reliability depends a lot of times on your execution operations, right.

It's not just that one example that really comes to mind right now.

I talked to a IT reseller recently and they had multiple salespeople covering the same product functionality, but each one of them had completely different criteria for who were given discounts, how were they giving discounts, you know, the bands and their pricing was completely different.

So it depended on who do you get that day, what your price is going to be like.

I mean, that is a significant red flag in terms of reliability.

Now across teams, that shows up that one team, for example, marketing says one thing, like they tell one story and then sales comes in and tells a completely different story.

It's very incon.

It feels very inconsistent for the buyer and it raises a big red flag that this company is not reliable.

I mentioned already, sales promises one thing and then delivery has to go and figure out how to fix it.

So there's no alignment here.

And then the customer experience depends on who you get and there's no shared standards between how do we do things?

What's the next step?

If we hand some someone over for marketing, is there a seamless handover and a seamless experience for the customer?

A lot of times there is not.

And then they move from sales to operations and it feels like a completely different company.

So if the buyer experiences something like this because they remember they experience you as one company, not as different entities within that company, it raises massive red flags that you're not going to be reliable as a founder.

This has consequences for you, for you personally.

You have to be constantly vigilant and you're constantly sort of playing house of cards here, hoping that nothing slips and everything comes crumbling down because there is no reliability there, it's really hard to step away.

Like as a founder in this situation, you can't really take vacations.

You're always working.

You always keep on checking your email at night because you're not trusting the system, because there isn't any system.

Right?

You're the safety net.

You're constantly the safety net that makes sure things keep going, that you're growing as a company and that means growth feels really risky and it's not exciting.

You started this company because you really wanted to grow and solve a problem in a meaningful way.

And you're doing this in a, in a Great way.

But as you're growing past the 2,3 million and you really start to grow up because your personal hustle, your personal, the buyers trusting you personally isn't going to scale the company.

And if you are in a situation, you probably have experienced a growth plateau and it's very frustrating.

I've worked with multiple companies to break through that with double digit growth and once you do that, that's fantastic and it feels really good and invigorating.

But if you're stuck at that growth ceiling because you are constantly the bottleneck, your calendar is the bottleneck to growth because you have to constantly step in and be the safety net, it feels like a hamster wheel that you're never going to get off.

And it's so frustrating.

So today's episode is really for all those founders out there that are stuck in this hamster wheel, it is not that hard to get off if you just put the right steps in place.

That's my good news for today.

Let's talk about, before we get to how that changes for you as a founder, let's talk about how buyers experience that sort of emergent reliability.

When you're not really at the level of reliability that they're expecting, the buyers come to you with a lot of questions.

They might have seen a demo, they might have already read your website, read a buyer's guide, had some buyers education, and they believe that you're a competent vendor, that you're solving their problem in a meaningful way and that you can really help them.

But suddenly things sort of go sideways.

They might be ghosting you, they might be stalling, they might sort of hesitate.

And that's because now all of a sudden this nagging question of reliability comes up.

So now they have more questions, they ask for reassurance.

The decision cycles all of a sudden lengthen.

They might pull more people in within their organization, into a buying committee because they want to personally hedge their bets.

Sometimes companies I work with, their buyers are physically putting their job on the line by recommending that solution.

So that's a personal risk they're taking on.

And if that goes wrong, there's a lot on the line for that person.

So they're going to be hesitant because that's a huge risk to manage.

Now to manage that risk, a lot of times if you're not communicating reliability effectively enough, they will request to talk to you as the founder.

Right?

That's where you come in, as the safety net and as the bottleneck.

Or they say things like, we gotta think about it.

A lot of times that will now end up in a situation where 43% of the B2B buyers will make a defensive choice 70% of the time, meaning knowingly those buyers choose a solution that is safer, considered to be safer, but maybe a less better fit in terms of product or service fit because they feel the other option is too risky.

And a lot of times that means founder led businesses that are smaller are sorted out as unsafer choices and they revert to big companies that just feel safer.

Okay, so let's define what reliability actually is in terms of trust building.

Well, if you go around and you ask people how would you define reliability, A lot of people would actually define it as consistency or dependability.

And those definitions are a lot of times mumbled and intermingled with each other.

So I want to be clear on what I mean by reliability.

Now let's define consistency first.

Consistency really refers to when you're using the same behaviors over time.

You have the same standards, you have the same tone, you have the same expectation over time.

It's the same thing consistently.

Now, dependability is when commitments are met consistently.

So there's a bit of a difference here.

Follow through without escalation is much, much more likely.

And less checking is required because those commitments are dependently met.

Right?

That's really what dependability is.

Now reliability includes consistency and dependability and a little bit of a layer on top.

So reliability is really the likelihood of predictable outcomes.

So if we say someone is reliable, that means the chances that the outcomes are predictable are very high.

And it's a result of consistency and dependability.

And it gives the buyer the confidence that, that this will work the same way as it did before.

Meaning there's a lot less risk if you can communicate your reliability effectively and believably.

And as soon as you reduce the perceived risk a buyer has, there is a much higher chance that they will buy from you.

So remember, reliability is not perfection.

Reliability is predictability.

And it reduces the risk that a buyer perceives.

Now, how does reliability come in as a growth constraint?

Right.

So having a low perceived reliability restricts your growth because your buyers have a really hard time trusting the future state.

Reliability can be defined as something that you imply from past successes.

And that's mostly what most companies do, right?

They have case studies, they have testimonials, they have quotes, they have past projects that they.

And they imply, well, if we've done this in the past, this will happen in the future as well.

But there's no promise.

And that's the Second part of the equation about the future, and that's a crucial component most companies are missing.

That promise about the future really explains, here's how we work with you, here's the processes, the standards, the, you know, SOPs.

I mean, you don't need to give them the SOPs, but you need to show companies or buyers that you have the processes, that you know what the next step is, that you always know what the next step is, that you, following a defined process, you have quality standards, you have milestones, you have like, you know, because you're the expert, what is going to happen next.

But you need to communicate that in a believable and effective manner that you're not just relying on implying past successes, but you actually really defining the future or the promise of the future of working with you.

So coming back to reliability being a growth constraint, we just explained why it's harder for them to trust the future.

So because of that, they need more personal reassurance and they have this higher perceived risk.

As a founder, though, you are restricting growth because trust cannot detach from you and is not attached to the business.

It's only attached to you as the founder.

That's why delegation feels unsafe.

That's why you become the bottleneck.

And for the business, that means then slower sales, slower retention, you're easy to replace with other companies.

And trust never compounds.

Now, a lot of times when I talk to founders or CEOs or business leaders, when I come to trust building, they are not really clear what that actually means because there isn't a process out there.

A lot of times we just assume trust is built by having experience with our brand or having great brand perception, or you experience the product.

And now that you had a good customer experience, you trust the brand is something that is more like accidentally happening rather than being built systematically and intentionally.

Whenever I talk about trust building, I mean the latter.

We're talking about intentionally and systematically building trust.

So I need to show you guys what does it actually mean?

How does it show up if reliability isn't built at the level that customers are expecting it?

So here are some examples.

Right.

In marketing, companies have a lot of times a very inconsistent voice and tone.

It really depends on who's telling the story, right?

Is the founder coming in in the sales conversation and telling the story?

Their story is most likely going to be very different from the salesperson or the marketing person because there's no cohesive story that was agreed upon and everyone is telling the same story.

That gives a feeling of not being reliable.

The website feels disconjointed.

Yes, websites are living, breathing things that grow over time.

And a lot of times it's really hard to wrangle in the monster and make sure that we consistently tell the same story, but that those companies that really are not prioritizing reliability or communicating that effectively, their websites feel very disconjointed.

Messaging depends on the channel.

A lot of times the social media team will just talk one way about the company and have a different feel about it versus the website versus maybe YouTube versus sales conversations.

It really a lot of times depends on the channel and that feels very inconsistent.

And as a buyer, there's a huge problem of that because I am bombarded with information and I need to make sense of that.

And I spend a lot of mental energy and time and effort to reconsolidating that information and figuring out which part of the story I should believe in which part.

So it just is sort of a big mess.

And that signals, you know what?

That's not a safe option to go with.

In sales we have a lot of times that there's no shared process language, there is no shared customer journey that marketing and sales have.

Where there's a handover, there's alignment, there's no defined customer journey.

So we're really not clear on what's the next step.

If they do X, what should be the next logical step.

A lot of, for example, talk to us or book a demo pages are very ambiguous and vague around if I fill out this form, what's going to happen?

And that isn't an accident because a lot of people don't actually know.

It just depends who the lead is being routed to.

And that person either calls or maybe they email or maybe whatever it is, but it really depends on who you get that day.

Next steps are a lot of times differently explained.

So again it depends on the salespersons or the delivery person that you get that day.

And it's not really clear what is the next step.

And a lot of people have to make it up as they go and then expectations are reset in mid deal.

And that a lot of times is a point where we have had a conversation up to this point.

Now we maybe build a business case and present and now we maybe pull in someone from delivery or develop depending on what company you are.

And now we all of a sudden have to walk back carefully a few promises that we made or we have to shift slightly into what is actually going to be delivered.

And there is a fracture point here, friction that is going to slow down the deals.

And then guess what, the founder has to come in and close that gap and smooth things over and make sure the deal goes through.

A lot of customers will have the same promise, but different delivery.

The quality that they get in terms of delivery, whether that's if you're hiring a coach or a training company or onboarding, it really depends on the person you're getting.

And then as a result of that, instead of getting into flow and following the process and really getting into a rhythm and having predictable outcomes, you're constantly firefighting.

You're constantly just trying to fix one thing, and then the next thing, you're basically playing whack a mole, and you're just trying to fix all the things that are popping up rather than getting into a good flow.

So reliability here isn't just a delivery process or an operational problem.

You need to act as a reliable company and communicate your reliability across all sections of your business.

And you need to signal reliability across all of the segments of your business to be perceived and believed to be reliable.

Okay.

All right.

So now that we know how the lack of reliability shows up, let's have a look at how companies are can actually fix this.

What can companies do to believably communicate reliability?

Well, there's some conceptual shifts that need to happen within the mindset, first of all.

And the first is we have to switch from individual effort to shared standards and processes.

We have to document SOPs, and that's more of an operational, but we actually have to train our teams on that.

We have to be consistent in how we communicate our story, how we show up in the market, etc.

We also have to switch from full flexibility to predictability.

Predictability in a scalable business is more important than flexibility.

Of course.

You have to be flexible once in a while and you have to adapt to certain situations.

But overall, in terms of what drives scalability and growth, predictability takes the cake.

We also have to switch our mindset from we'll handle it to here's how this works.

Here's step number one, two, and three.

We know exactly what needs to happen.

We have a set process for that.

We will follow this because this is a proven process.

Just to make this a bit more tangible for you, you need to make exceptions visible.

Whether that's exceptions in your SLAs or.

Or certain things that can happen, bring them out in the open, embrace the elephant in the room, make those exceptions visible.

You have to communicate your processes clearly.

Right?

That's number two.

If you're not actually communicating what your processes look like and what to expect.

Your customer has this uncertain feeling about the future, meaning perceived risk, meaning they don't trust you.

You have to align, number three, you have to align your teams around the same promises.

So there has to be an alignment between marketing and sales, there has to be an alignment between sales and delivery, etc.

And if you align them around the same promises and later on in the framework, we're actually talking about unapologetic customer alignment where we almost put blinders on and we say, okay, that's the thing we focus on.

And if you align everyone around those promises, that will be a tremendous difference because now we're working towards the same goal rather than siloed goals that sometimes compete with each other within an organization.

And we have to show buyers who what will happen after we say yes.

That's really, really important.

When we work with companies in the trust leader framework or when we are walking people through this as part of our cohort, we are really seeing what works for this company, for this offer, for this risk level that they're at.

Where is trust leaking currently in their process?

And what are they not communicating effectively enough?

So there isn't one right way.

Those examples I just shared are more illustrative to make it more tangible.

But you really have to drill down deep of where are your leaky points in your bucket and then define those really well for your organization.

And that's why reliability needs to be built intentionally.

When we don't treat it as an operation problem, but we treat it as a trust problem, then we will actually fix the entire problem across marketing, sales, delivery and operations.

And that really helps to fix the entire holistic trust problem.

Alright, so to wrap this episode up, if trust still depends in your business on you showing up personally, then that's not a leadership failure, it's a reliability gap.

And the good news is that this is relatively easy to fix.

It's very buildable, you can communicate it easily and it is very transferable.

Meaning that if you as a founder are struggling with the challenges that I mentioned before, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

You can build reliable, build reliability.

And that will help you transfer trust towards your company and to your teams and take it off of you, your shoulders and free you up to work on the business, not just in the business.

So that means less involvement and more confidence.

And for the company, that means that trust is starting to compound, your buyers are feeling safer and growth is becoming less fragile.

Now remember, reliability creates predictability and integrity determines what happens when predictability breaks, when things go wrong.

And that's what we're going to look at in the next episode.

I'll see you then.

Bye.