- Buyers do most research before ever talking to sales
- Trust depends on ability, integrity, and genuine intent
- Companies must show helpful thinking, not just marketing claims
- Strong trust leads to faster closes and less price pressure
Deals stall mainly because buyers don't trust vendors yet.
There has been a fundamental shift that is making business harder to conduct.
And that shift is a lack of trust.
More specifically, buyers no longer start the buying process at neutral. They start from a point of skepticism.
Research expert Susan Baier has focused a great deal of her time looking at this growing problem.
Research from Edelman and PwC shows a widening trust gap between leaders and buyers—one where executives believe they’re trusted, while customers quietly disagree.
This trust gap changes how decisions get made, how long they take, and how much confidence buyers bring into the process.
And it explains why so many deals don’t die—they just stall.
According to Baier “the baseline today isn’t lack of trust—it’s distrust.”
Buyers assume:
- Claims are exaggerated
- Tools are oversold
- AI outputs may be wrong
- And marketing tells you only what you want to hear
So, what happens?
Instead of engaging early, buyers are researching longer. They look for validation elsewhere. They wait for signals that feel safe.
That’s not a buyer problem. It’s a trust environment problem.
Buyers decide before they ever meet you
The research is clear: B2B buyers are deep into the process before they reach out. Reports numbers indicate this could be as high as 70% or more through their decision process before they reach out.Why does this matter?
Because it points out that trust decisions are being made without sales conversations, without demos, and without any direct interaction
They’re based on:
- What you choose to explain
- How clearly you frame tradeoffs
- And whether you're thinking feels grounded in reality
When trust isn’t established early, buyers don’t say “no.” They say “not yet.”
And pipelines quietly clog.
So, What Does Trust Actually Consist Of
Decades of organizational research break trust into three components:- Ability — Can you actually do this?
- Benevolence — Are you acting in my interest?
- Integrity — Will you do what you say?
These traits signal your expertise is both competent and human. And buyers are scoring all of this—often unconsciously, and often long before a meeting is booked.
Does this feel familiar?
If your organization is seeing slower sales cycles or increased skepticism, the issue often isn’t awareness or capability.It’s that buyers can’t tell:
- How you think
- What you would not recommend
- Where the real risks are
- Or whether you’ll be honest when tradeoffs appear
When everything sounds confident, nothing feels credible.
How trust actually gets built (and why most teams struggle)
Trust doesn’t come from saying the right things. It comes from doing a small set of things consistently and visibly—long before a buyer is ready to talk.Back to Baier – she points out the organizations that build trust effectively do these five things:
1. They make their thinking visible
Buyers trust conclusions they can follow. Expertise alone is no longer trusted -- buyers need to see how you think, not just what you claim. Hidden logic feels risky. Visible logic feels safe.
Here’s an example: Hidden logic (what many companies do):
We recommend the use of this platform because it’s best-in-class
This creates friction for the buyer. They begin to think:
- Why is this best-in-class?
- Why is this best for my organization?
- What happens if it’s the wrong choice?
At this point, the buyer has no way to verify this thinking. And that means instead of moving forward -- the process slows down because more research is needed to prove the claims.
And in sales…the longer the time, the greater the chance the deal will unravel.
Using Visible logic is a way around this issue. Instead of coming back with a recommendation try this:
Example 2: Before recommending a platform we looked at three things:
- How often your teams need to customize workflows?
- How much internal technical support you actually have?
- How sensitive your data governance requirements are?
Based on that we ruled out Platform Y because it’s powerful but assumes a level of in-house technical support you don’t have today.
Platform Z was cheaper, but it would lock you into rigid workflows that don’t match how your teams operate.
Platform X isn’t perfect—it’s more expensive—but given your constraints, it gives you the most flexibility with the least long-term risk.
By stepping out your process in this way, the buyer may still disagree but now they get insight to your thinking. They can see how the decision was made.
They can understand why tradeoffs were considered, and what wasn’t chosen and why.
This visible logic approach feels safe. And trust begins to build.
2. Be relentlessly helpful before you try to persuade
Baier points out that trust is built by being generous—helping without immediately asking for anything in return. She calls this “relentlessly helpful thought leadership.”
This aligns with Forrester’s buyer enablement research, which consistently finds that educational, non-promotional content builds trust and accelerates decision-making more effectively than sales-forward messaging. Teaching isn’t about giving everything away; it’s about helping buyers orient themselves so they can make better decisions.
3. Name tradeoffs early and often
Trust is strongly tied to perceptions of integrity—specifically, whether a partner appears honest about constraints and downsides. McKinsey’s research on trust and decision-making reinforces this idea—credibility increases when leaders acknowledge uncertainty instead of oversimplifying. Saying “here’s what this won’t do well” signals confidence, not weakness.
4. Be consistent across every touchpoint
Baier emphasizes that trust requires a consistent brand experience across every interaction. Gartner’s research on B2B buying friction shows that inconsistency between marketing, sales, and delivery increases hesitation and post-purchase regret. Alignment isn’t a branding exercise—it’s a credibility requirement. Buyers notice when optimism on the website doesn’t match reality in the room.
5. Show restraint—and say no when needed
One of the strongest trust signals is the willingness to not sell. Baier suggests “giving away what you know, not what you sell.” This maps closely to leadership research which identifies restraint as a key indicator of judgment and authenticity. In practice, saying “this won’t help here” or “now isn’t the right move” often builds more trust than pushing forward.
These behaviors don’t scale overnight. But they compound.
And once buyers feel them, selling becomes dramatically easier—because belief has already been established.
How we try to build trust at Ascedia
At Ascedia, we are not perfect, but we try to embrace these ideas and put them into action every time we are dealing with a client.1. We slow the conversation down enough to make sure we’re solving the right problem.
2. We help clients get clear on what really matters in a decision.
3. We surface real constraints early instead of overselling upside.
4. We make sure strategy, digital experience, and execution all tell one coherent story.
5. And when something isn’t right, we say no – even if it costs us in the short term.
Why this matters now
In a market flooded with content, automation, and synthetic confidence, trust has become one of the few advantages that compounds.
Not because it’s flashy—but because it reduces friction and that results in:
- Fewer stalled deals
- Shorter decision cycles
- Less price pressure
- Better-fit clients
When buyers trust how you think, they trust what you recommend.
So, moving forward, if your pipeline feels stuck, ask yourself:
Are we asking buyers to believe us—or are we giving them reasons to believe?
Trust isn’t built all at once. It’s built by showing up clearly, honestly, and consistently over time.
Our Director of Business Development interviewed Susan Baier on Over A Pint. Listen to the full episode here.
