I’ve observed many businesses over the years, assume that when dealing with customers, trust is inherent in everything. They behave as though trust automatically comes with the invoice number, the logo, the website, and the “About Us” page. Because trust is assumed, we never feel that we have to intentionally build it.

Traditionally, the way we have thought about the customer journey has always been in terms of the funnel: leads in the top and clients out the bottom. This traditional sales funnel is based on what the company or the business wants customers to do – to lead them from that first introduction to their purchasing decision.

But John Jantsch introduced an entirely different way to think about the customer journey – as a marketing hourglass. This new hourglass shape of the customer journey is organized around seven key customer behaviors.

If we take a look at the customer journey from a behavioral perspective it would reveal a completely different reality.

Before anyone tries you… before anyone buys from you… before anyone repeats or refers… they must know you → like you → and trust you. Not trust as an idea. Not trust as branding language. Not trust because your website says “trusted by hundreds.” Not trust because you think you’re trustworthy. I’m talking about real-world, felt trust — the kind that lives in someone’s nervous system.

Most businesses are not even trying to earn that. We are collectively overdosing on “transactional hustling,” mistaking activity for relationship, and wondering why customer loyalty is low, referrals are quiet, and repeat business is unpredictable. Let’s go deeper.

The Myth: Trust Comes With the Territory

It doesn’t. We simply act as if it does. Kristin Zhivago — a longtime revenue coach and founder of Zhivago Partners, known for interviewing thousands of customers across hundreds of companies, illustrates what trust needs to reflect.

Every marketing message is a promise. We will do this for you. Our product will help you do that. Our service will fix this thing that’s bothering you. You will be successful / beautiful / happier / more productive. Every line, every claim, every declaration is a promise. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: most companies don’t know which promises their customers actually care about. They guess. They assume. They project internal thinking outward.

Kristin says executives get this wrong 85% of the time. That number feels extremely polite to me, but I’ll take it. Trust is born from kept promises, but most companies start by keeping the wrong ones. Because they never asked their customers the right questions in the first place.

The Decline of Trust Isn’t Imagined — It’s Measured

This isn’t just “a feeling.” Forbes Senior Contributor Kate Vitasek, writing in an April 2022 piece on trust and collaboration, highlighted how institutional trust is collapsing across leadership, workplaces, and society. One in three people don’t trust their CEO. Less than half trust CEOs at all. More than half believe capitalism does more harm than good. People aren’t starved for options. They’re starved for integrity.

Transparency? Missing. Respect? Selective. Empathy? Optional. Follow-through? Spotty. Trust isn’t built during those big news worthy moments – it’s built in the boring ones: showing up on time, responding when you said you would, saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” telling the truth when the truth costs you, keeping agreements when no one is checking, being consistent between Zoom, email, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and lunch. Trust is not a feature. It is infrastructure.

The Reality Nobody Likes to Admit

Then there’s the real human side – captured well by Paddy Tan, a Singapore-based entrepreneur and strategist, in a July 2025 Medium essay about the uncomfortable truth around trust: not everyone trusts you -and you shouldn’t trust everyone.

You can be brilliant, ethical, competent, aligned, generous… and someone still won’t trust you. You could also want to trust someone, and your spirit still says, “Not this one.” Small wins build trust. Consistency builds trust. Time may help trust, but time by itself, doesn’t earn it. And what we all need to face is this: some relationships will never reach that depth and they don’t need to. This is not personal – it’s called being human.

So What’s the Real Issue?

Business owners keep treating trust as a default when it is actually a stage. And stages must be designed, guided, and earned. When trust is assumed: marketing becomes guessing, sales becomes pressure, service becomes firefighting, leadership becomes controlling, retention becomes accidental, referrals become nonexistent.

When trust is earned: the right clients find you, sales become easier, boundaries become clearer, expectations stay realistic, your work feels lighter, your business becomes human again.

This is why in The Hudson Alignment Framework™, Client Attraction & Marketing (Know–Like–Trust) sits BEFORE Sales & Revenue (Try–Buy) and BEFORE Client Retention (Repeat–Refer). Because without trust? Nothing moves. Nothing repeats. Nothing refers. Nothing grows.

The Call Back to Alignment

The real work isn’t in adding more hype. It’s in aligning: the promises you make, the experiences you deliver, the people you hire, the values you practice, the marketing you broadcast, the journey your clients actually walk. Trust isn’t a brand pillar. It’s a business practice: not assumed nor automated. Not outsourced nor implied. Earned every single day, in the smallest things.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Where in your customer journey are you assuming a level of trust you have not yet earned — and what part of that journey needs intentional attention, care, and follow-through to reflect real human behavior instead of hopeful business fantasy?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson — writer, possibility thinker, musician, Organization & People Development Sensemaker™, and MCODE Legacy Coach. I help leaders and soul-driven professionals decode the deeper patterns shaping their business, work, identities, and results especially when it look like a performance issue but it’s really misalignment in disguise.

If something in your life or business feels off and you can’t quite name it, message me. Sometimes one conversation is all it takes to see what’s really going on.