Some of the Trusted Source Marketing™ concept goes back to my discussions with an owner of a large Employee Benefit provider.  From my view his company holds a Trusted Source position with hundreds his client companies.  They depend on his company to only bring them useful, effective solutions to issues that the company and their employees face.  This is the same situation that company owners have with their employees.  He doesn’t see it this way.  Great salesmen establish themselves with great companies and operate in an environment of trust.  This is not the norm.  But if anyone in sales will adopt the attitude of being a Trusted Source and always and only do what is best for their clients, this is the beginning of great.

In the marketing of Employee Benefits one of the big issues for some years has been increased costs in the primary benefit at every company, health insurance.  The whole process has been reduced to delivering the bad news about the next rate increase.  There have been solutions proposed, see Obama Care, but how this will all play out in the market is anything but clear.

Trusted Source Marketing™ focuses on existing trust based relationships and is ideal for introducing new products, explaining existing ones and integrating the relationship between vendor, company ownership and the employee who is the consumer of the benefits.

Company owners don’t like delivering bad news to their employees any more than do the health insurance providers.  What to do?  Be trustworthy.  Honestly discussing what is happening is a beginning. Investigating and considering alternatives and inviting feedback is also important.  But is there a mechanism in a larger company for this to occur?  I suppose there are companies that are effectively communicating to the rank and file about what is happening.  Hopefully those channels feed information and ideas back and forth.

The employer/employee relationship always has an inherent trust component.  When the employer takes it up a notch and decides (with the help of a trusted advisor) to take even more responsibility to assure that their employees understand the values presented in the benefit package, Trusted Source Marketing™ begins.

At the beginning of a Trusted Source approach to employee benefits the company has to decide to be open about the whole process.  And then to tell their employees exactly what is being attempted.

And that is trying to influence the employee benefit process to everyone’s best advantage. Everyone has things to gain and to lose.  Open, honest, regular communication combined with choices can lead to a happier, better informed workforce with coverages that appeal to each individual.