Marketing Matters: Trust as a Competitive Advantage

Originally pubished in the August 2026 edition of Business North

Marketing strategy assumes one thing: that people believe you. This is the reason third-party endorsements carried weight, until we stopped trusting them, too.

We live in an era where consumers are bombarded by advertising, AI-generated content, fake reviews, exaggerated claims, phishing expeditions and endless noise. As a result, skepticism is everywhere, with trust increasingly scarce. 

For local businesses, I believe building trust can be your competitive edge. Being trust-worthy is more valuable than ever.  

Reputations Matter
A business reputation compounds like interest in a savings account. Early efforts—delivering quality, honest communication, and exceptional service—create initial trust. Satisfied customers then become advocates, sharing positive experiences through reviews, referrals, and word-of-mouth. 

When I was at AMSOIL we kept track of the sources for every lead. We also tracked conversion rates for those leads. Leads that came from “word of mouth” continually exceeded the rest in becoming customers.  

It’s not astrophysics. Each positive interaction multiplies reach: one happy client or customer tells five others who arrive pre-sold with higher conversion rates and loyalty. Over the years, new customer acquisition costs drop, pricing power grows, and resilience to setbacks increases. What begins as modest goodwill evolves into a powerful, self-sustaining asset that drives sustainable growth. Consistency is the interest rate—small daily deposits yield exponential returns.

(By consistency I mean quality customer engagement. Not all employees are upbeat or capable of being warm and engaging. They may be excellent in other areas and an invaluable asset there, but people who smile easily and exude warmth are want you want on the front lines. MOO)

To reiterate, every customer interaction is marketing because it shapes perception, builds (or erodes) trust, and influences future behavior. Whether it’s a sales call, support chat, delivery, or follow-up email, each touchpoint tells a story about your brand’s values, reliability, and care. 

 

Positive experiences create advocates who refer others and leave glowing reviews. Negative experiences spread quickly and can damage your reputation. Examples abound. In today’s world, customers are the most powerful marketers. 

 

Soft Skills
How do we achieve this? I would suggest that it begins with business owners and management choosing to value and develop what is now called “soft skills.” Corporations hire consultants to cultivate them. Books and seminars promise to improve our emotional intelligence, communication, and ability to work with others. 

Yet not that long ago these weren't considered specialized skills; they were simply part of growing up. Children learned to listen, cooperate, and respect others through everyday life with family, friends, classmates, and neighbors. Today, the very qualities businesses prize most—listening, empathy, integrity, and basic friendliness—are the foundation of trust.

Today, many of these "soft skills" have become "power skills" because they have grown increasingly rare. Yet in business they are more important than ever. Customers want to know they are being heard, not merely being processed. They want to feel understood, not managed. They want to do business with people who look them in the eye, keep their promises, and genuinely care about solving their problems.

This is one of the advantages local small businesses have over the Amazons of this world. 

Getting a New Business Off the Ground

One of big mistakes I’ve seen several new businesses make is the failure to preserve enough start-up resources for marketing. Potential customers need to know you exist and you need to let them know who you are, where you are and why it matters to them. This takes an investment of time, effort and start-up capital. Keep in mind, however, that once you attract consumers to your door, you get only once chance to make a first impression.

Starting a new business can be compared to turning a large concrete wheel with nothing more than a short handle. You lean into it with all your strength, yet the wheel hardly budges. With enough effort, the wheel begins to turn. As the wheel gains momentum, each push becomes more productive than the last. Eventually, the wheel’s momentum begins to work in your favor. This is what your reputation will do for you.

Practical Tips for Small Businesses
Consistency is like the interest on your investment. Showing up the same way every single time compounds the value of your reputation.

Amplify it. Actively ask for reviews, showcase testimonials, tell customer success stories. I enjoy giving good reviews, but I don’t always think of it till I’m asked. Ask and you will likely receive. 

Protect it. Handle complaints publicly and generously—turning negatives into positives can accelerate trust.

A Real-World Example
There are any number of local businesses that are already modeling this principle. When Tom Hanson opened the Duluth Grill in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in 2001, and his farm-to-table offerings, friendly atmosphere and reputation for first-rate food and service made it a “place to go” in the eatery space. The reputation he built paved the way for the launches of OMC, Cork Town and other creative eating ventures. Even when one of these faltered, his quick response actually strengthened his cred.

We have many such examples in the Twin Ports. I’d start listing a few here but would feel guilty leaving others out. 

   

A Word About Pricing
At some point in my career I heard the saying, “Price attracts attention, trust earns the sale.” It’s catchy and could make a nice closer for this column, except I myself don’t entirely buy it. 

The matter of trust also applies to pricing, one of the Four P’s of marketing. Not every customer bases his or her buying decisions on price. In fact, when prices are too low we often get a niggling fear that there’s a catch here that we’re missing.

Last Thought

In marketing terms, trust isn’t just “nice to have”—it’s a defensible moat that gets stronger and more valuable every year. For small businesses without massive marketing budgets, it’s often the ultimate competitive advantage.

 

Trying to Publish a Book? Here Are a Couple Tips

Illustration by the author.

Things were different in the early 1980's when I started my writing career. There was no internet, so all correspondence with editors (except those you already had a relationship with) was via the U.S. Postal Service. If writing articles, you would send a query letter (your pitch) along with a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE). If you were submitting a short story, you might send with instructions to discard if they rejected it.  You would still include the SASE so the editor could easily respond. If you desired the story back you'd include an envelope with sufficient postage to return it.

Those were the rules of the game. 

The book publishing world was also different. Back then there were only 50,000 books a year being published. Something like 2000 were fiction and the rest non-fiction. According to Berrett-Koehler there were nearly 1.7 million books self-published in 2019.  

In the old days, to get a book contract you worked with an agent who would shop it around, or you submitted a book proposal yourself. In 1993 I sold my first book with a pitch letter. The VP of marketing called me on the phone to let me know the ideas was good, but someone famous was already covering that topic. She then pitched an idea to me. I said yes, wrote the manuscript and was paid. Unfortunately, the book was part of a series that was never completed. I still got paid, but would rather have had my name on the cover of a book.

There were seemingly countless books that helped writers learn the ropes in all these things. Magazines like The Writer and Writer's Digest also addressed the practical matters of getting published. Writers conferences served a similar function. I attended two and they were immensely helpful, in part because in meeting with editors face-to-face I discovered that they were simply people like you and me. 

One of the books that helped me was called The Awful Truth About Publishing: Why They Always Reject Your Book and What You Can Do About It. The book was published in 1986. A couple years later I borrowed it from the library.

According to John Boswell, the author -- not to be confused with James Boswell, the 18th century Scottish biographer -- there are four minimum requirements for a book proposal. And actually, these requirements are also the main points in a query letter to pitch a story to an editor. For your book they would be these:

1. It must define the book's audience.

2. It must describe the book.

3. It must show how your book fills a need of its audience.

4. It must show why you are qualified to write the book. Or to put it another way, you must persuade the decision makers why you are the one who should execute this concept or idea, and not someone else.

These are the main features of a query letter as well. When pitching a story to an editor, you must hook the reader (editor), describe what you are selling, explain why it is important (and a good fit for this publication) and what your qualifications are. 

Business propositions aren't that different from this template either, except you will also need to include the financial aspects of the proposal as well. How much will it cost? How long will it take? 

In short, the way to get buy-in from a publisher, editor, or movie producer is to do your homework. Answer those four fundamental questions and be prepared to substantiate those answers with additional data if necessary. 

Nowadays there's one more item that seems to have become important for book publishers. Do you have a following on social media? According to one speaker at a writer's conference my brother attended this past month, "If you don't have 100,000 followers on social media, you might as well not try." 

Is this true? I dunno. 

One thing I do know is this. People are busy. So when pitching, don't waste their time getting to the point.  

* * *

Miscellaneous Notes and Quotes--Writing Prompts?

Lake Superior Sunrise. Photo courtesy John Heino

I've been on another cleaning jag in my home office. In the process I found envelopes filled with scraps of paper containing notes, quotes and observations.

As any long term reader will attest, I especially enjoy collecting and sharing quotes. In a couple places I have card catalogs full of quotes from 40 years ago or so, and on my bookshelf a notebook that I purchased in Mexico in which I collected quotes from my readings.

This week I wrote a brief defense of this habit of collecting and using quotes which was published here at A Philosopher's Stone. It begins, unsurprisingly, with a quote... from Montaigne.

All this is lead in to these scribblings and scratches which I found in those envelopes in a shoebox. This is hardly all, but it's a start. In fact, much was pretty worthless and here's why. The scrap of paper had an idea but the idea wasn't sufficiently fleshed out so that I can't recall--40 years later--what prompted it. TIP: If you are a writer and you have an idea that strikes you in a profound way, don't write, "Story Idea: The Rings of Saturn." This is not a story idea. It was a note that may have been triggered by a story idea, but it's going to be useless 30 years later unless you include more details.

I know that some of these were probably written down from dialogue in a film, so it would be hard to take credit for all of them as my own. Nevertheless, they can still be used as writing prompts. Or as a starting point for a discussion. Or...

* * * *

Is efficiency always better?

* * * *

"A man needs the truth at least once before he dies."

"He didn't need the truth. He needed comfort."

* * * *

"You speak so eloquently, yet you say such appalling things."

"That's been the story of my life. Everybody appreciates the form but is frightened of the content."

* * * *

The history of the world is a history of people doing improbable, even impossible, things.

* * * *

Mapped Life Series. Kentucky. By the Author

The Temple of Doubt
Skepticism and two kinds of questioning: to mock or to know.

* * * *

A man who needs nothing can afford to risk everything.

* * * *

"A wavering mind cannot produce a stable life."

* * * *

"Indecision binds even a strong man."

* * * *

"No one can lower his standards without reducing himself as well."

* * * *

"It is better to be drawn by a vision than to be driven by ambition."

* * * *

Diary of a Water Bug

Today two boy humans spent half an hour bombarding me with missiles.

* * * *

What are some ways people signal their need for help?

How can we become better at recognizing these signals and what can we do about it?

* * * *

For what it's worth, there so many great websites that collect quotes. One of the more comprehensive now is Wikiquotes. (It even has quotes from every season of Seinfeld.)  I like it because it identifies the sources and doesn't select what some person or committee has decided for you to be the 23 Best Quotes by >INSERT FAMOUS NAME HERE<

I've been listening to an audiobook of 50 Philosophy Classics and if one wanted, they could go to Wikiquotes and bone up on the ideas of each person you've just read about.

For what it's worth, I will close off here... with a two more quotes, observations by Nobel Laureate Andre Gide

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."
--Gide

"The artist who is after success lets himself be influenced by the public. Generally such an artist contributes nothing new, for the public acclaims only what it already knows, what it recognizes."
--Gide

* * * *

Related Links
Writing Prompts at Reddit
365 Creative Writing Prompts

Tips for Road Warriors

Business travelers and salespeople who spend a lot of time on the road all know that despite some of the exotic locations and events they attend, traveling is no piece of cake. The hilarious Planes, Trains & Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and the late John Candy, gives a pretty good glimpse, albeit over-the-top, of the kinds of situations you have to be prepared for when you travel. Missed connections and lost luggage being just the tip of the iceberg.

Because I’m on the road today, attending the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, I woke up thinking I could offer a few of my own tips for travelling.

Efficiency
Travel is all about efficiency, since you cannot carry your whole office with you. You’ll have to make decisions that encompass what you pack and what to leave behind. It’s a bit like editing. You may wish to amplify all your ideas, but there’s just not enough space. Movie directors, too, shoot far more footage than what appears in the film. There are some pretty good shots that end up on the cutting room floor. So it is with packing for a trip. Bring along only what you need. For sure, don’t leave behind your cell phone recharger.

Purpose
I always keep the purpose of the trip in the forefront of my mind. Everything else, from how I spend my time to what I bring along, ties in directly to this.

Airline Security
Please stop complaining about the way we are treated like cattle by the TSA. Yes, many of them could use some basic customer service training, but when all is said and done it doesn’t change anything to get red-faced and agitated. Keep the sage wisdom of St. Francis in mind: Accept what you can’t change. One more tip: wear slip on shoes and socks that don’t have holes in the toes. Sometimes, though, I have to wear lace up shoes. I always carry the bottom half of a broken plastic shoehorn in my back pocket to more easily get my shoes back.

Sleep
It is very important that you get the sleep you need, especially if you are going to a week long event like SEMA in Las Vegas. Be sure to plan in your down time ahead of time. If you need to bring sleeping pills, do it.

Shoes
The SEMA Show has somewhere between ten and fifteen miles of aisles. Even the parking lots offer miles of trekking, I recommend a second pair of shoes. I rotate my shoes every day so that any rubbing that occurs happens to be in a different place each day. I have seen people get blisters on their feet from all the walking and it is definitely not something you want to experience, not with two more days of walking ahead of you.

Trip Reports
Make notes on the business cards you receive so you remember follow up items. Take time each day to record your notes from the day before. It is the detail that makes the report interesting and gives it value. Assuming that the details are relevant to the purpose of your trip in some way. And personally, I like to finish writing it before my plane touches down at home because my next day in the office will already have a backlog of work awaiting me. Getting that trip report out of the way is one less thing to worry about so that you can hit the ground (office) running.

Bring a Little of Home with You
I like to bring a few CDs to play in the rental car while I am travelling. Today I have Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind CD in the car along with his Blood On The Tracks. I often have a card or something sentimental from my wife or kids in my briefcase... or something related to home on the wallpaper of my desktop.

Here’s a link to some other tips from a real road warrior. This guy is obviously a veteran and his notes are practical.

Any tips you wish to share?