Building trust as a concept

A while back I wrote a blog post about Trust Sites, and why, if you are a SaaS company, you should have one (outside of your SaaS agreement). Well, since them a lot has happened so I wanted to provide you with an update.

What is New

1). Salesforce.com has updated their Trust Site.

– Take a look at their new site. https://trust.salesforce.com/

– They have taken it to a new level with a cleaner and simpler layout, with Trust, Status, Performance, Security and Learn links.

– This is the new gold standard.

2). There are lots of third party services that can setup a trust site for your SaaS application (for a very reasonable monthly fee).

– One of my clients told me about this company, and I really like it. https://www.statuspage.io/ For around $99 a month you can create your own simple trust site using their service.

– There are lots more, so take a look at these too:  http://www.statuscast.com/ and  https://status.io/. I am sure there are more too.

So Remember This.

– When you are selling SaaS, you are selling trust! In the old days, what closed the deal was whether or not the customer liked your salesperson (at least that is what salespeople tell me), but in this new world of remote selling (over the wires) it is all about trust.

– Design your own trust site, based on what your customer needs and wants to know about your company to trust you!

– Maybe it is information about availability or information about security practices or disaster recovery policies.

– Either way communicate and educate them about these key issues.

– Also, remember that these sites are external to your SaaS agreement, which I suggest is a good thing.

In the SaaS world, a customer is unlikely to buy you service if they don’t trust you! Carve that in virtual stone.