From Crisis to Growth Catalyst: Tackling the Trust Epidemic Head-On

74% of B2B buyers reject customer proof and 61% worry leaders are being intentionally misleading. The most important factor in whether companies do business with you is trust. Discover how making trust measurable can turn the trust crisis into your competitive advantage.

Trust isn’t just a buzzword in B2B account-based marketing (ABM); it’s the bedrock of successful go-to-market strategies.

A Forbes article on “Why Building Trust Should Be #1 Focus Of B2B Marketers” highlights Forrester’s research, stating,

“The most important factor in whether companies will do business with you is ‘do they trust you?’”

“Yet few companies have trust-building programs on par with brand-building programs or demand-generating programs.”

According to Forrester’s The State Of Global Business Buyer Trust In 2024,

Trusted companies are more likely to:

Win and retain customers
Receive the accolades of their peers
Enjoy a strong buyer preference.

An Overwhelming Case: Trust as the Undeniable Top Priority

“Too often, trust is viewed as intangible. While important, it’s not easily measured or managed, but trust is one of the most powerful performance drivers in the business-to-business (B2B) world. According to Deloitte, companies with high trust scores can outperform their peers by up to 400%. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a reflection of how trust enables faster decisions, deeper collaboration, and more resilient partnerships.” – Forbes/Deloitte
In a Forrester analysis of 20,000 survey responses across multiple market segments, “Trust was always the most important brand attribute for B2B buyers.
The research, Trust is the New KPI, from LinkedIn and Ipsos confirms that trust is central to B2B marketing impact. 94% of marketers agree that building trust is the most important factor for achieving B2B brand success.
“It is clear that B2B marketers need to pay more attention to building trust and not just selling products. Don’t just pay lip service to this idea of trust; think about it as a prime determinant of purchase intent, which is what it is. And think about it as one of the prime motivators for how you communicate with buyers and with a market, and that one of the goals of marketing should be to build, in a measurable way, trust, and thus, permission to sell.” – Ian Bruce, principal analyst at Forrester
As Stephen Covey famously said, “Trust is the one thing that changes everything.”

Extensive research using all the leading AI tools, including ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Deepseek, Gemini, and Perplexity, consistently ranks trust as the number one challenge facing B2B companies today.

The Trust Epidemic

Of 32,492 respondents in 28 countries, 61% worry that business leaders are “purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” – 2024 Edelman Trust Baromoter

In the same study on the “Dispersion of Authority: Peers on Par With Scientists.”

When asked to rate (Trust ratings = 60 – 100), “I trust each to tell me the truth about new innovations and technologies.”

Scientists = 74%
Someone Like Me = 74%

Overall, macro indicators like “I trust companies headquartered in…” show the United States is at 53%, down 9 points over the last ten years. Trust in companies headquartered in European countries like Germany has declined by nine percentage points from 2014 to 2024

Another recent study shows that 74% of B2B buyers don’t trust your customer evidence. And we know it. 90% of sellers and marketers admit they’re not providing the customer with the evidence buyers want. This study concludes that “Sales need verified, unbiased industry proof that shows their solution is better than the alternatives. We’re not talking about a feature comparison page on your website — or even a competitive battle card, which buyers ranked as the least trustworthy type of customer evidence. Instead, sales has to lean on their customers to answer the question, “Why should we choose you vs. your competitor?”

The first step to address the Trust Gap…

In McKinsey’s, The Future of B2B Sales: The Big Reframe, in order o understand the new era of sales, they spoke to more than 50 sales heads. Their insights are enlightening and a wake-up call for those wary of change.

The #1 theme that emerged from the research: “Put the customer at the heart of growth. Capture your customers and build their loyalty and trust by offering them value propositions and personalized experiences that suit their needs. This can be done with effective analytics and tailored content emphasizing solutions and expertise.”

The Customer Voice & Trust Building Connection

Truly understanding the voice of the customer isn’t just about gathering feedback, it’s the foundation for building trust, as both Lina Tonk and Efrat Ravid emphasize through the power of listening with empathy and intention.

“To me, the most important approach is to truly connect with your customers. All we did was listen, really listen, to what they were experiencing and the challenges they faced. We weren’t there with an agenda or trying to push something on them. And as a result, the trust that naturally grows from that kind of openness is absolutely remarkable.” – Lina Tonk, 2x CMO and former Chief Experience Officer
“Stay close to your customers. Listen to them, not through a survey or by checking a box that says you’ve done it, but in real time. Customer experience and understanding customers is not just the role of one department; it’s the responsibility of every executive. Leaders need to make time in their calendars to be with customers, to truly understand them, and to practice genuine empathy. That’s the only way to build lasting trust.” – Efrat Ravid, Value Accelerator Advisor with Goldman Sachs and 3x B2B CMO

Trust is the New KPI

The following is an executive summary from a recent LinkedIn/Ipsos study involving 1,500 participants. The study’s primary focus was to explore and analyze the challenges faced by senior-level B2B marketers.

Research Executive Summary:

“Trust has become the most valuable outcome in B2B and the clearest path to ROI. It drives every deal, decision, and long-term relationship. But trust isn’t built through traditional brand messaging alone. It’s earned through relevance, credibility, and human connection, often delivered through video and creator-driven content.

That’s why this year’s B2B Benchmark Report explores the influence effect and how modern marketers are using video and trusted videos to capture attention and build confidence.

The data tells a clear story:

Video is no table stakes in B2B
Short-form formats are leading in ROI
Influencer marketing is growing fat with trust as the #1 goal
But measurement gaps are holding many marketers back from scaling their impact

A new model for brand building emerges, one where trust drives results. It blends content with credibility, reach with reliability, and performance with purpose.” – LinkedIn/Ipsos

Trust as the #1 Competitive Edge

The evidence is clear: trust is no longer an abstract ideal—it’s the most measurable driver of growth and competitive advantage in B2B markets. However, trust doesn’t begin with marketing campaigns or sales decks; it starts with the voice of the customer. Companies can transform today’s trust crisis into tomorrow’s growth catalyst by listening with intention, building genuine empathy, and turning trust into a KPI. The question now is: how can we harness trust to meet expectations and consistently outperform our competitors, starting with what our customers are telling us?

ELEVATING CONTENT MARKETING STANDARDS RAISES A CRUCIAL QUESTION:
Why shouldn’t the very act of creating thought leadership content also spark new conversations with in-pipeline deals, top prospects, and high-priority customers for revenue expansion? Or serve as the cornerstone for learning and applying voice-of-customer strategies? That’s the power of ABM Podcasting—engaging B2B buyers and customers in meaningful conversations that uncover essential go-to-market insights, support long sales cycles, reinforce your market perspective, build peer-level trust, and dismantle objections that kill deals.

Steven MacDonald

Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.

Follow Steve on LinkedIn.

Steven MacDonald

Follow Steve on LinkedIn.