Trust: B2B’s real dealbreaker

Imagine a World Built on Trust

Picture this: a world where trust is a given. Doors? Never locked. Windows? Always open. When someone makes a promise, you know they will deliver with no chasing and no doubts. If you asked for feedback, you would get it straight. If you didn’t get a job you applied for or were let go of the one you were in, you would receive detailed feedback. Life would be simpler, and we would save ourselves the mental gymnastics of wondering who is being honest.

In business, that kind of trust is rare but it is exactly what buyers want. Forrester’s latest research reveals that the biggest deciding factor in whether companies work together is simple: Do they trust you? Yet most organisations put more effort into brand awareness or generating new leads than into deliberately building trust.

Trust Drives Buyer Recommendations

The figures make it clear. Buyers who trust a company are much more likely to recommend it (85%).

Ian Bruce, PhD, principal analyst at Forrester, says trust plays an even more important role in B2B.

“Coming out of this research were a few insights around how B2B buyers behave differently than when they are consumers,” Bruce explains. “If they're a B2B buyer, they're purchasing something on behalf of their organisation… It invokes defensive decision making. The risk equation changes… Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM is alive and well.”

High Stakes: Buying on Behalf of Teams

In B2B, buyers often act on behalf of a whole team, not just themselves. Every decision carries the weight of responsibility, making trust a critical safety net.

To make it more practical, Forrester broke trust down into seven “levers”:

·       Competence – Being recognised for expertise and delivering results.

·       Consistency – Acting reliably so expectations are met.

·       Dependability – Being available and following through on commitments.

·       Accountability – Owning actions and their outcomes.

·       Transparency – Sharing accurate, verifiable information openly.

·       Integrity – Acting honestly in line with clear values.

·       Empathy – Understanding and sharing customer experiences.

Not all levers are equally important.

“When you look at B2B buyers, they primarily care about three things: competence, consistency, and dependability,” Bruce says.

That does not mean the others can be ignored. 45% of buyers say they would not forgive a brand that goes against their organisation’s values.

Who Do Buyers Trust Most?

So who do buyers trust most? The top spots go to colleagues, management, current vendors, industry peers, and analysts. At the other end of the scale are social media influencers, politicians, news media, and vendor sales representatives.

For new entrants, this creates a challenge because incumbents already have the trust advantage.

“There is an enormous barrier to entry for a new vendor… Buyers want stable innovators,” Bruce explains. “Financial security, longevity, and innovation. Those tie back to dependability, consistency, and competence.”

Bruce stresses that earning a conversation with a buyer starts with trust.

“If you’re approaching what is a high-risk decision… you’ve got to build a sense of trust to get permission to have that conversation.”

And trust is not built on your words alone. It comes from what others say about you.

“You’ve got to reach all of these people,” Bruce says. “Communicate through trusted sources so the person you want to influence hears about you from people they already believe.”

While there are some variations by sector and region, such as integrity ranking higher in Asia Pacific, the message is clear. In B2B, trust is not just a ‘nice to have’.

“Don’t just pay lip service to this idea of trust,” Bruce advises. “Think about it as a prime determinant of purchase intent… One of the goals of marketing should be to build, in a measurable way, trust, and thus, permission to sell.”