Unlike Permission Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing, Business Marketing, Interactive Marketing and a host of others, Trusted Source Marketing is not about searching for new customers.

Those influenced to buy beneficial programs via payroll deduction are not customers. They are our employees.  First and foremost our influence is used with their advantage in mind.  We recognize our place and our reasons for following this course of action.  When our employees take advantage of the benefits we offer in larger numbers that is good for the company.  Some programs offer greater advantage to the company than others but they all are good for the company if they are good for the employees.  If they are not good for the employees, we will soon know if we encourage dialogue.

Dialogue is another key to Trusted Source Marketing done well.

At its core the Trusted Source Marketing concept is about influencing those who trust us to consider and decide about products and services usually offered as employee benefits.  Employers, large and small, will want to be considered Trusted Sources because there are compelling reasons to become a Trusted Source.

By encouraging greater understanding of the benefits offered there is increased participation.  By doing it in ways that allow people to make decisions in their own time without coercion respect is shown.  Too often companies have added a benefit without any mechanism for disseminating  information or offering easy access to it.  This does little good.

Current systems are expensive and inefficient.  More importantly, they don’t work very well. Too many good benefits are ignored because they are not effectively explained.  It is not about promotion or bells and whistles.  It is about taking the responsibility to bring good ideas to the people who trust us.  To actually take the time to create a well balanced benefit program and explain why we have decided to offer each and every benefit.

The process at its best provides information about the advantages and disadvantages of any program offered.

Employee Benefit agents can use Trusted Source Marketing to increase sales in existing client companies.  In fact, any agent who does not go to their existing client base first does not understand the concept.  Become a Trusted Source.  Go to your clients and explain why it is important to rethink their benefit programs and why they offer them in the first place.  They should be quick to see how improving delivery while reducing their costs makes sense.