How credible are you to others?

How do you define credibility in business?

A friend of mine recently told me his story of how his very career rests on his credibility with his major supplier–partners.  He stated that everything rides upon his credibility when he declares that he can produce a quality product on time, especially when his competition has faltered attempting to do so.

There’s little news in that statement… 

…until you hear of the stories of those who destroyed a good thing with one badly executed promise, or one lie, or one slip in quality or delivery.

We often hear that our best asset is our reputation. 

With the number and range of competitors easily available to our potential and actual customers today through a simple Internet search, we cannot afford to waste a single customer because of a missed promise or failure to rise to an expected level of service.  Combine that with the ease of posting reviews, both good and bad, and we find ourselves in a microscopic ecosystem where small individual failures are often rewarded with massive negative blowback.

[Email readers, continue here…]  And we all know that once posted, a bad comment or review cannot be erased and remains forever.

And your promises?

You represent your company (and yourself) with every promise you make, whether as small as a date–certain for delivery or as large as a significant contract based upon expected quality and service.

Think of your competitors. 

If yours is a B–to–B relationship, you will have salespeople from the other side of the fence watching your every move, anxious to exploit every misstep.   And if yours is B-to-C, then customers will make their opinions known with their reviews for all to see.

It isn’t human nature to think of your personal and corporate credibility whenever you offer any sort of terms for price, delivery, quality or service.   But in this world of rapid communication and persistent information, you should do just that.