Around 18 months back, I shared the story of how I went from hearing Mari Smith’s name, to promoting her Facebook course to my audience of thousands of subscribers… all within 24 hours!
That’s because Mari had “smoothened the trust curve”.
More recently, I shared a similar experience with bestselling Indian writer Chetan Bhagat – when I stole his book, then became his fan.
Today, I attended a live book launch event by this author – and learned some valuable lessons about trust, how it develops and what you can do to speed it up.
Here’s a brief ‘case study’. There are several moving parts to this seemingly simple (but actually very complex) puzzle. And unless ALL of them are working in cohesion, trust will suffer.
Plan
I considered going to the event. That itself happened because of the sequence of things I detailed in my earlier blog post. Trust, on a superficial level, was established.
Decision
At the last minute, I debated attending. It was a commitment of a few hours, and time is my most precious asset. I posted on Twitter – and Chetan Bhagat responded, asking me to come. That made it happen.
Arrival
I arrived at the venue at 6:00 p.m. The hall was half-full. The program started at 6:30 p.m. The half-hour delay, though not too bad by Chennai standards, left me a bit annoyed. Not good.
Content
Chetan made a short power-point presentation. It had 7 graphs, was really funny, and ended too soon… leaving the audience wanting more. Good.
Accessories
Two film ex-stars shared their stories. Though relevant to the book’s theme, their presentations were more like filler. What made it work (for me) is the fact that Suhasini Maniratnam is one of my favorite actors – and I fell in love all over again! 
Product
A brief book-reading followed. The choice of passage was debatable, but then it would always be a judgement call. It was brief. A teaser to the book. But considering over half the room had already read the book, that was moot!
Engagement
There was a short Q&A with the audience. The comments and discussion was all over the place. Chetan handled it all well, with a dash of humor and self-deprecation, while firmly controlling where (and for how long) it went. Good.
Book Signing
What could have been a serious gaffe (when the compere announced that Chetan had “changed his mind and would NOT be signing books”) was smoothly handled by the author who said he just wanted to see his guests off first – before devoting all his time to his fans!
Face Time
I bought 3 books. Took them on stage to be autographed. And got 25 full SECONDS of Chetan’s time. Enough to hand him my business card, and offer to help with his work in spreading English literacy, though I’m not sure if it really registered!
This last is the one area where my journey up the trust curve took a stumble. And like I said before, that single stumble could end up destroying everything else… because it pinpointed what was MISSING!
Purpose
Do you recall that I mentioned Mari Smith, the ‘Pied Piper of Facebook’, as my earlier example of ‘quick trust building’? In her case, EVERYTHING was consistent.
Mari’s brand is about Facebook and teaching how it can be used effectively by marketers. Her free report, blog, and entry level product all were built around that theme.
So, it was quick and easy to discover her, study her skill and then sample her product, realize she’s an expert, and then tell others about her.
If I remember right, that smooth trust curve led to an affiliate promotion that brought in close to $800 in referral commissions to my business – in just 48 hours since I first learned about Mari Smith!
Now, to Chetan Bhagat. His novels are nice, easy reads. But what hooked me was how he supported spreading English literacy in rural India. That endeavour spoke to me. I respected that, and wanted to help in whatever way I could.
Except, I don’t know HOW! No, not even after meeting the man briefly today.
I ran some numbers. The hall had around 850 to 900 people (my guesstimate). All but 200 or so left as soon as the program ended. Of the rest, the majority only wished to get their books autographed… and maybe their photo snapped with Chetan Bhagat.
Very few wanted to spend some time and talk with the author. I was in that small group.
If it had been a focus area for the writer, it may possibly have taken little over 30 minutes more than it did – but what return might he expect on that modest investment?
Well, I was willing to make a donation, or commit to some time on a regular basis, or discuss other options to help with the work on English literacy. No, not all right there on the dais – but later, at leisure and mutual convenience, maybe just by email or on Twitter.
The seed for this might have been sown when we met face to face… if only we could have talked for a few minutes!
That’s the BIG miss.
And where trust gets seriously undermined.
Because, now, I’m left with the impression that this entire event had little other purpose than to push sales of a few books!
The lesson I learned from this observation is that it is important to plan and smoothen every bit of the trust curve – especially focusing on the IMPORTANT PART that comes on the ‘back-end’, not just the mass appeal front-end seller (in this case, the print book).
For most authors, the book is a ‘loss leader’ – the valuable asset you practically give-away… in exchange for mindshare and trust of your reader.
What you do with that trust defines your level of successful leverage.
You can make it the foundation of a big business empire – like Mari Smith did.
Or you can simply miss out on a golden opportunity.
Trust can be built fast – if you smoothen the curve!
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