Ask almost any professional service provider what it is they’re selling, and you’ll get “relationship”.
Relationships are at the core of the service experience.
Yes, people are buying outcomes. But the client can’t tell if an outcome is good or not, what are they really buying?
Trust. That’s what we, as customers, are buying. A faith that the outcome is good. Faith in the service provider themselves. We’re buying confidence in the person. Buying, in essence, the feeling that we can rely on this particular individual, and larger organization (i.e. brand) to deliver as promised.
So you’re selling trust and relationships. Okay. How? How do you sell a relationship? How do you advertise trust?
If you believe most service provider advertising, you simply say it. “Trusted advisor” is one of the most common phrases used by service professionals across the service professional spectrum.
But that’s like saying, “Hey, let’s hangout because I’m cool.”
No, there’s a way to establish feelings of trust with a brand without having to beg for it.
What we’re aiming to do is help our prospects develop a para-brand relationship with us and our firm. A para-brand relationship is a one-sided, emotionally resonant connection between a consumer and a brand.
The power of these relationships lies in their ability to create an emotional tie that lead to higher levels of trust, and hopefully, an increased likelihood of purchase—even though the consumer hasn’t interacted with the brand personally.
The Benevolent Para-Brand Relationship model, backed by research, is structured as follows:
Identification: Birds of a feather
Using the tenets of social identity theory, we’re looking to connect with the kind of people we want to do business with.
It’s based on three core principles.
1. Identity Similarity
When we identify with a person or brand, we see ourselves in that thing. We feel a connectedness, a camaraderie. It’s a shared sense of values, ideals, and beliefs. It’s our ‘in-group’. It becomes ‘us’. Finding these meaningful similarities is what counts. Not just “do you like the colour red” because who really gives a crap about that.
But something deeper. More meaningful. Something that has impact.
2. Identity Distinctiveness
Identifying with an ‘in-group’ means that we are naturally positioned against an ‘out-group’. A company or brand that we are different from. Mac vs PC (for those of you who remember).
These are not only our competitors, but our reference point. We anchor ourselves against what we believe we are not. This often can be more visceral than
3. Identity Prestige
Being part of an ‘in-group’, or feeling connected to a group, also means that there’s a sense of shared glory. We feel good when the brands we are associated with succeed. Their success is our success. Granted, this one is harder to pull off. It’s not exclusivity, but a feeling that “your win is my win”, too.
A great example is Harley Davidson. If you ride a Harley, you undoubtedly feel a sense of pride. Harley’s wins become your wins.
So you can use this framework to start to build the foundation of your brand identity. It’s not complete, though.
We need to layer in our feelings of trust and commitment.
Do you Trust me?
We covered trust in detail in our blog post Trust Me: Trust and the role it plays in professional services marketing, so we’ll keep our explanation here brief.
The concept of trust has been well-studied. Our definition of trust is as follows, “Trust is the expectation or confidence that the service provider will act in a manner that is capable, reliable, and benevolent.”
1. Capability
Expertise. Know-how. Specialized training. Call it what you want, but one of the core tenets of trust is the ability to do the job you say you can do.
It answers the question: are you capable of delivering on the thing you do?
Be it law, accounting, insurance broking, wealth management, marketing, potential customers look for signs that you can deliver the service. This is why they have come to you in the first place, isn’t it?
But here’s the nuance: displaying this expertise in a way that impresses your prospects and makes them believe, but not too much that you overwhelm them with insider jargon.
2. Reliability
Reliability is repeatedly performing at your level of expertise. People want to know that you’re not a one-hit wonder. That time and again, clients want to know that you’ll effectively litigate a case, or deliver expected investment returns, or help your SEO ranking improve.
As your relationship lengthens, this consistency becomes more and more important. Find ways to continually demonstrate your expertise and that you’ve been delivering the same value since day one.
It’s the repeatedness that counts. Think of it like making deposits in a bank. The more often you deliver what is expected, the stronger your trust statement will be.
3. Benevolence
Character. Good-faith. Scruples. Benevolence is the act of doing what is in the best interest of the other person. In this case, the customer.
This element of trust holds so much importance in the professional services realm. Why? Because most professional service relationships, between provider and customer, are completely asymmetrical. They’re high in credence values, meaning customers have no way of knowing if a good or bad job has been performed (both before and often after delivery).
Which puts them in a place of vulnerability. And when we feel vulnerable, well, we can get anxious. Who wants customers who feel anxious? Nobody.
In most professional services situations, customers are forced to put their faith in the provider, and that the provider will do what is in their best interest.
I do: The Power of Commitment
There’s one last feeling we want to evoke with our prospective clientele: commitment.
This isn’t loyalty. Loyalty is an outcome.
No, commitment is a forward-looking feeling, often expressed as a desire to maintain a relationship. But it’s not quite that simple because, like identification and trust, commitment is a multi-factor construct, too.
The difference being that commitment can have a negative impact on a para-brand relationship.
1. Affective Commitment
Affective commitment is often described as feelings of I want to; it’s an enduring desire to develop or maintain a relationship. When surveys ask, “How likely are you to continue using X brand?” what they are looking to gauge are feelings of affective commitment. It’s a positive emotion.
The stronger the feelings of affective commitment, the more likely future purchases will occur. Simple.
But commitment isn’t quite that simple.
2. Normative Commitment
Unlike affective commitment, which represents positive feelings, normative commitment is neutral. Normative commitment is best expressed by feelings of I ought to. It develops or is rooted in the internalization of norms represented in our social interactions.
Maybe we go to a certain hair-stylist because they’re friends of a friend. Or we use an accountant because they were recommended to us and we don’t want to offend our colleague. We feel like we should maintain a relationship with the service provider.
You can see how this isn’t ideal. The strength of the relationship is based on feelings of obligation, not desire. And this isn’t really a solid foundation.
But there’s a more precarious form of commitment still.
3. Continuance Commitment
Ever feel trapped by your bank or cell phone provider? You want to get out of the relationship but you can’t because A) you have a contract, or B) switching providers just feels too painful.
This is continuance commitment. It’s marked by feelings of I have to. It’s a negatively charged state where people feel unable to leave a brand relationship.
Here’s the funny thing – companies will often tout retention numbers that likely incorporate customers or clients who feel trapped.
Just because someone is loyal doesn’t mean they’re committed.
How do you use this?
This Para-Brand Relationship Marketing model is suited for those operating in a professional service. Here are some ways to put this to work immediately.
- Develop or reassess your marketing strategy;
- Build a unique brand voice;
- Launch a new marketing campaign;
- Target a particular audience online or on whatever socials you’re on;
- Build a community of followers.
And this model isn’t applicable to attracting new clients. The framework can be used to strengthen internal feelings about your brand as well.