People Buy From People (And How To Get People To Buy From You)

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]I've said it before and I will say it again. People buy from people because people trust people. You are going to have to get ready cuz I am going to say that over a hundred times in this video because I need it to land. I have said it on stages to crowds of marketers in boardrooms of people who've never even met their customer, to founders mid-panic about declining conversion rates, to corporate teams hiding behind brand guidelines. People buy from people. Not from logos, not from brand purpose paragraphs, not from perfectly curated decks, but from people. This is not something that I say lightly. It is a commercial reality. I want to break down why that is structurally true, how to get people to buy from you, and later in this video, I'm going to tell you the one mistake that kills trust faster than anything else. It is a silent killer that most brands never see coming.

[00:01:01]Modern marketing convinced brands that polished equals trust, and what a huge lie that was. So, we built overproduced ads, overfiltered content, overscripted founders, overwritten mission statements, and then we wondered why conversion got harder. But, trust is at an all-time low. So, according to Edelman's Trust Barometer, only 48% of people globally trust businesses to do what is right. That is not even half.

[00:01:32]And yet, the same report consistently shows that people buy from people.

[00:01:36]Essentially, it says people like me.

[00:01:38]They buy from people like me far more than institutions. So, if institutions are distrusted and people trust people, what exactly are we hiding behind when it comes to our brand guidelines? Let's remove emotion from this, which is arguably quite hard to do when it involves people. Buying is always a risk. Every purchase is a micro decision that says, "Do I trust it enough to exchange money for it?" Humans are wired to assess risk socially. We read tone of voice, facial expressions, consistency, credibility, body language, track record. We process so many data points without even thinking about it. And there's data to support this. 81% of consumers say that they need to trust a brand before they buy from it. And here's the big one. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people that they know over branded content. 92% That is why testimonials outperform taglines. That is why founder-led brands are converting so hard right now. That is why your best salesperson closes more than your prettiest campaign. It is not magic. It is not new. People buy from people because people reduce risk. The closer someone feels to your thinking, the less convincing that they need. And that is the leverage. Now, stay with me here. This is the one that I mentioned at the start. The single biggest mistake that I see time and time again, inconsistency. Changing your message every week. Showing up when you see revenue. Pivoting, positioning every quarter. Trust collapses when people can't predict you. On average, a buyer needs to see a message 11.4 times before acting. That's not even close to one-and-done. So, congratulations, you've made a sale. You have to build reputation to build familiarity. And you have to build familiarity to build trust. And you guessed it, that trust reduces your risk. So, if you keep changing the story, you keep resetting the counter. For me, when I exited my agency, I could have softened everything. Rebranded into something much, much safer. And I could have diluted my perspective so that I didn't upset anyone, but instead I did the opposite. I repeated the same theme relentlessly, and I was clear on what I wanted to be known for. Ambition and expertise, motherhood, boardrooms and babies, over and over and over again.

[00:04:10]Some people might disagree with it, and that is absolutely fine. But the reputation is what is building the trust. It's that consistency that has drove me advisory work, board seats, keynotes, inbound founders who already are trusting how I think before I've even met them. There's no cold intro that is needed. And this is what people buy from people looks like operationally. It is not this like personality theater, it is just structured consistency. There is an opportunity for you to build trust, to build a rapport, to sell yourself, sell your product, and sell your brand. It means visibility plus credibility plus consistency equals trust. A big emphasis here is that it needs to be you. Not a version of yourself that you think will sell bigger, better, sexier. So, let's break that down. Number one, visibility.

[00:05:03]If no one sees a human, they attach to nothing. This is why founder-led brands outperform particularly in early stages, but also marketing is not cheap. Gaining visibility through your people can be incredibly cost-effective in early stages. It is a hell of a lot cheaper than burning cash on paid ads. You only have to look at the likes of Salt to see how effective this is. I'm actually not talking about the founders, I am talking about Sophie Millam. She became a visible part of the brand at Otta News alongside their founder Amy Smale. So, when she announced that she was leaving, every man and their dog was trying to guess where she might go to next. Salt capitalized on this and managed to infiltrate a whole new high-intent audience as a result. A visible operator reduces distance, and distance kills conversion. Number two, credibility.

[00:05:58]Visibility without credibility is just noise, and we are all so tired of noise.

[00:06:04]Credibility comes from proof, from experience, clear thinking, pattern recognition, and results. Trust is built when your thinking makes other people feel smarter. Take Caroline Hirons, the OG. She has possibly built the best experience in the business to launch her own brand. But, she didn't at first. She used the credibility to signpost the best products for any individual, backed by a bespoke app and two books on her area of expertise. And then, and only then, did she have an audience that would sell whatever it was that she backed. So, she launched her own brand, and it went [ __ ] wild. That is how you use your credibility. Number three, consistency. Trust is not built in a viral moment. It is built [clears throat] based on repetition. The same message, same values, same standards over and over again. I have already told you this once, but I will tell you again, inconsistency is a silent killer. Inconsistent people also feel really, really risky. Think about it like this, do you reschedule a meeting for the fourth time after someone cancels? I don't, and I don't think that you would, either. Risky feels expensive. Expensive kills sales.

[00:07:22]The boardroom reality, I have sat in enough commercial meetings to tell you this. The slide rarely closes the deal.

[00:07:30]The room does. The conviction of the person presenting, the clarity in how they answer a hard question, the calm when the numbers get challenging, the ownership when something goes wrong.

[00:07:42]People buy from people in B2B as much as they do in B2C. And actually, because I've lived it, I would argue even more so. Your brand deck does not negotiate, you do. So, the hard truth, ask yourself, do people trust the business or do they trust a person inside the business? There is a difference that I hope you can see now. Say it with me because people trust people. If your brand or your business disappeared tomorrow, would anyone follow a human from it? If the answer is no, you found your Achilles. Now, it is all well and good me sitting here and preaching about people trusting people more than brands, but the reality is that this really matters right now. AI is rising, automation is rising, synthetic content is rising, sameness is about to explode.

[00:08:32]When everything is polished, templated, and technically good, human judgment becomes a premium and is very hard to effectively automate. If you are building something, this is the moment to stop hiding the operator. If you run a brand, put a real decision-maker front and center. Not social exact reading captions, not a hide face with no authority. If you are the operator, stop waiting to feel ready. Visibility compounds, reputation compounds, trust compounds. Anonymous businesses do not do that anymore. If every sale requires a discount, you have a trust problem. If your pipeline relies entirely on paid media, you have a credibility problem.

[00:09:16]And if people cannot explain what you stand for in one sentence, you've got a clarity problem. Now, one more time for good measure, and I'm sure you are over the 11.4 reputation counter in this video, but people buy from people because people trust people. The brands that win over the next decade will not be the most polished, they will be the most trusted. If you want growth and you want to build credibility, if you want leverage, brand reputation, if you want longevity, and you want to stop hiding, be visible. Own your thinking, structure your influence properly. Everything else is a tactic. If you are serious about building something that survives trends, platforms, and real life, then please do hit subscribe. I want to know in your comments who you trust the most. I'll see you in the next one.