• by Michael Baer , Yesterday

When B2B marketing results start to underperform — slow lead flow, flattening inbound, low conversion — the reflex is generally to diagnose it as a demand problem. And the knee-jerk response is predictable: crank up the ads, push harder on outbound, and hope that something sticks.

But the truth is that most of the time, it’s not a demand problem at all — it’s a trust problem.  Your prospects simply don’t believe in you yet. They don’t see you as credible, capable, or believable enough to deserve their attention, let alone their business. And that lack of trust is what’s quietly throttling your growth.

Trust Is the Real Growth Lever -- and it Starts Before Awareness

Too much B2B marketing and sales messaging goes straight to features and selling points and skips the all-important but harder work of earning belief and trust first.

And in B2B, credibility isn’t just what tips a buying decision in your favor; it actually determines whether your message gets noticed at all. Kantar research shows audiences actively avoid or discount untrustworthy messages, suppressing awareness long before any sales conversations.

Research from Forrester, Nielsen, and others shows the same pattern: buyers respond to credible evidence and validated options over interruptions, volume, and pushy outbound.

And this isn’t just a problem for tech or SaaS companies. In healthcare, it’s magnified. Clinicians, administrators, and payers evaluate every message through a lens of credibility and clinical validity.

The Trust Driver Playbook

If you suspect your marketing is underperforming, stop asking how to reach more people. Start asking how to earn more belief.

Here are some of the actions you can take to build it:

Seek to provide value. Value creation precedes conversion. In fact, 81% of B2B buyers say they’re more likely to engage with companies that provide helpful insights early in the process (Demand Gen Report, 2023). When you provide information they find helpful and trustworthy, you earn permission to sell later.

Give before you get. The companies that win trust are those that contribute before they seek to convert. They publish insights without a gate, share knowledge without expecting immediate return, and build credibility deposits long before seeking to make a withdrawal. In the long run, trust compounds — and pays back more than any one campaign ever will.

Don’t make promises; demonstrate proof. Tell real customer stories and provide case studies, showcase proven results, and leverage valuable third-party testimonials. These carry far more weight than “we’re the best” claims and miscellaneous puffery.

Build the right foundation and drive it consistently. Companies that have a defined strategy, clear positioning, and well-understood personas project confidence and credibility. And when that foundation is echoed everywhere — in website messaging, sales materials, and content – that consistency reassures customers that you know who you are and who you serve.

Put people out front. Buyers trust experts, not entities. Elevate your clinicians, engineers, or executives as visible thought leaders. Their authenticity transfers to the organization and makes the brand more human — and therefore more believable.

Trust as the Multiplier

Before you fund the next campaign or tweak the funnel again, ask a harder question: Do our buyers actually believe us yet? Because if they don’t, nothing else you do will matter.

And if they do, everything else gets easier.