Why Would Customers Buy From You If They Don’t Know Who You Are?
Author: The CompassBG team
Published:
Customers buy from people they trust. When you show your team, your story, your mission and your values, you shorten the distance to the potential customer and give them a reason to choose you rather than a competitor with the same product and price. If you hide behind the product, the customer has no way of knowing that you are different.
Over the past few weeks we kept having the same conversations with clients, acquaintances and potential partners. Some of them turned into an outright argument: does it make sense for a company to publicly show its team, its story, the difficulties it has been through, its mission and its values? On the website, on social media, everywhere.
Our position is based on nearly 14 years of work in sales, marketing and presenting products, companies and teams, as well as more than 400 CompassBG projects. Our answer is firm: yes, it makes sense. Here is why.
Watch the video "Why would customers buy from you if they don't know who you are?" on YouTube (in Bulgarian). In it we talk about the argument with clients and about our observations from practice. Watch the video.
Contents
- Why would customers buy from you if they don't know who you are?
- Does the customer care about the team, or only about the product and the price?
- Why is a human face more valuable today than before?
- Is it worth showing your team if it will be different in a year?
- How can customers feel the atmosphere in your team?
- Are you too small to show yourselves?
- How do you stand out if you sell the same product as everyone else?
- Why is the "About us" page visited so often?
- How does team visibility shorten the path to a sale?
- What can you start with today?
1. Why would customers buy from you if they don't know who you are?
Because people trust people, and trust is what sets you apart from a competitor with the same product. The cliché is true and is more relevant today than ever.
Trust is not a nice bonus but a condition for the purchase. In a 2019 special report by the Edelman Trust Barometer, 81% of consumers said they must be able to trust the brand to do what is right in order to buy from it.
Trust in an anonymous company is hard to build. Trust in specific people is much easier to build.
2. Does the customer care about the team, or only about the product and the price?
The product and the price matter, but they are rarely enough for customers to choose you over a competitor. This is also the main claim we disagree with.
The people we argued with said that nobody cares about the team, the founder or the company's mission. In their view, it is enough to provide a good product and good service at a competitive price. The problem is that your competitors say exactly the same thing. When everyone offers a good product at a good price, the decision is made on the basis of something else: trust, feeling and liking.
3. Why is a human face more valuable today than before?
Because machine-generated content, clichéd messages and cold service have taken over the space, and more and more companies are trying to remove the human factor. Against this background, a real person stands out immediately.
An example from practice:
A few months ago we had a bitter personal experience with one of the big home appliance companies. After several hours of trying, we could not reach a person. We were passed through several forms with AI assistants, and in the end we spoke on the phone with an AI agent. Perhaps after another hour of persistence we would have succeeded, but the trend is widespread.
That is exactly why consumers today value the human touch more than ever. They want to see that there is a real team behind the product they buy and the service they use.
4. Is it worth showing your team if it will be different in a year?
Yes. Outdated information is better than no information. This was the second claim in our conversations: the team is one thing now, and in six months, a year or two it will not be the same.
Our answer is simple. What matters is whether the information is true at this moment. Outdated footage on social media is better than no activity. It is better to show the real spirit behind the product than to stay silent and show only cold product photos. When the team changes, update the content.
5. How can customers feel the atmosphere in your team?
By showing it openly: the people, the way you work and the reason you do it. There is no other way than full transparency and visibility.
How many times have you said to yourself: "If only our potential customers could feel the atmosphere here"? We have said it hundreds of times. Well, show it to them.
The atmosphere in the team is what determines what the customer service will be like. You cannot hide behind your products and services and expect the customer to know that you put energy and emotion into the process and that you are the right choice for them.
6. Are you too small to show yourselves?
No. Even if you are one or two people, it still makes sense to show yourselves. Being small is not a weakness and is no reason to feel awkward.
"We are very small, there are only three of us" is a concern we hear all the time. Yet according to data from Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute (NSI) for 2024, around 93% of active enterprises in Bulgaria have up to 9 employees. Almost all of your competitors are small too.
The goal is to shorten the distance to the potential customer. If you deliver the service yourself, you are the team. If there are two of you, the two of you are the team. What matters is what you do, why you do it and how you do it, and getting that message across to the people who might be interested.
7. How do you stand out if you sell the same product as everyone else?
Show the service and the people behind it, because the product on its own does not set you apart. The more standard the product, the more important this is.
An acquaintance of ours sells mineral water and asked us what he could possibly show, since people just want water in the office. Precisely because he sells water, and in Sofia alone there are more than 100 companies doing the same, he needs to stand out.
If the customer calls at 14:00
You can react and deliver at least part of the quantity by 16:00.
If the customer forgot to order on time
You will find a way.
If no one can receive the delivery at the address
You will offer a solution.
There is no way to show all this other than by putting your own face forward and introducing your colleagues. When you are clear, transparent and visible, the message reaches the customer without unnecessary words.
8. Why is the "About us" page visited so often?
Because after the homepage, the customer wants to find out who is behind the business. We analyse many websites every month, and "About us" is usually the second most visited page.
The user lands on the homepage and immediately looks for answers to a few questions:
Is there a team?
How long has the company existed?
Why does it exist?
What else does it do?
If these questions go unanswered, you lose trust at exactly the moment the customer is looking for it.
We describe how to build a strong page in our article The "About us" page, and for first impressions see 3 common mistakes on a homepage. Clear information about the company and the people in it also helps AI search engines understand who is behind the content. You can read more about this on our AI optimization page.
9. How does team visibility shorten the path to a sale?
When the customer already knows you, long sales negotiations fall away. At CompassBG we have been seeing this more and more often in recent years.
A few months ago a client called us. Our colleague started explaining how we could help, but she interrupted him at the second sentence:
"I know what you do, I know who you are, I know how you can help me. Give me a price and let's get going."
The more people in the team, beyond the owner and the manager, are public, the better. People largely make decisions based on liking, and each team member will appeal to a different type of customer. This way you increase your chances of winning a wider range of customers.
Our founder Petko Borisov puts it this way on our About us page: only relationships based on fairness, a spirit of partnership and mutual respect lead to quality results. These relationships begin with the customer knowing who they are working with.
10. What can you start with today?
If you have even the slightest hesitation, test it right away. You have nothing to lose, because customers will get to know you at some point anyway.
- Update your "About us" page with real people, your story and your mission.
- Show your team on social media: who does what and how you work.
- Explain why the company exists and why you keep fighting.
- Involve more colleagues, not just the owner.
If you want your website to present your business the way you see it from the inside, take a look at our website development service and our article on user-focused communication. To reach more people with this message, see online advertising, and to keep them after the first purchase, read about customer retention. If you would like to discuss your case, get in touch with us.
Watch the full episode on YouTube (in Bulgarian) and share your opinion in the comments. Should a business show its team and its story? We talk about the argument with clients, our personal experience and what we see in practice. Watch the video now.