Establish credibility: 5 steps to establish credibility quickly

You meet someone for the first time, how do you establish credibility quickly. It is easy to establish credibility over a period of time when you have held up to your commitments and established that you can get things done. You are always interacting with others in a personal, social or business context but there are tactics which would help you in establishing credibility quickly.

A step by step approach to establishing credibility in my first meeting with you would include the following steps:

1. Let you know that I am not an enemy - It helps if you know my gain from interacting with you
2. Let you know that interacting with me is of value to you - It helps if you know your gain from meeting me
3. Let you know what I can't do for you - Make myself real to you and not a sales pitch
4. When I can't do something for you, I will stand with you  - It helps you to know that I will be on your team 
5. I want you to know that I can walk away

1. Help you establish my gain

• Prevention of loss is important
• You don’t want to be a duped or fooled interacting with me
• You don’t want to incur a loss interacting with me
• You don’t want to end up looking foolish

If you understand my gain from interacting with you, then you know what you are getting into. Understanding my gain will give you comfort of knowledge. This comfort will ensure that the first barrier in establishing credibility disappears.

2. Help you establish your gain

• Now I want you to understand your gain from interacting with me
• No one wants to associate with a loser
• I need to establish that I am a winner and I can be of benefit to you
• I need to establish that I can help you avoid problems

I have now overcome another barrier in establishing credibility as you now know what value I bring to the table. However, at this time a barrier in establishing credibility emerges. You start wondering if I am for real. You start wondering, if it sounds too good to be true. Let’s tackle this barrier to establishing credibility in the next step.

3. Establish the edges of my value

• If I told you that I am an excellent blogger ... You would wonder about my claim
• Alternatively, if told you that I am working hard to build myself as a blogger... You would accept it without batting an eyelid
• I should ensure that you know who I am but at the same time make you aware of who I am not.

Having the confidence to say that I am valuable, but I am not a Superhero makes me real. A real person is always credible. We have now managed to demolish another barrier in establishing credibility but then you start thinking about the times when you need help and I am of no use to you.

4. Be on the same team 

• You need help and it’s something I can't help you with
• I need you to have the confidence that I will not harm you when you need help 
• Even better, I will seek out help on your behalf
• I will help you find people who can help you

5. I can walk away

• Scarcity makes something valuable
• If I have the confidence to let you know that I can make myself scarce makes me credible
• I have the confidence to walk away from you makes me credible
• No one likes clingy needy people in their life

Establishing credibility instantly is not about giving a great sales pitch about yourself. It means following a systematic approach to establishing credibility and going against the conventional wisdom of just beating my own drum and telling the world how great I am.