This is a common thing that happens in the business world. We are at a networking event or trade show and encounter multiple prospective clients. They could be quite impressed with our services and products and ask for our business cards. Unfortunately, clients think that they lose some of their trust, because we are using free email solutions, provided by Gmail, Yahoo and other providers. It would be harder for potential customers to take us more seriously if our own email account isn’t associated with our real company. Any email account that ends with @Yahoo.com or @Gmail.com won’t sound too credible, because they are often associated with personal uses. Companies that still rely on these free solutions could find it more difficult to convince prospects, even if their products and services are far from inferior. In this case, perception can still be a crucial thing and it is still a key element that can influence others’ decisions. Using only free email solutions can become a rather major deterrent to prospects. It is a bad idea to lose huge deals because clients have wrong perceptions about us.
It should be relatively easy to overcome this hurdle, because we could register a domain name based on our company’s name. This will make sure that our business emails look trustworthy enough for typical correspondence with clients and prospects. Domain names could give an impression that we are a serious business in the industry. Registering domain name should be quite affordable and it represents a minimal cost when seen from our overall business capacity. Any financially stable company should be more than capable to secure their own identity. Companies that use multiple free solutions could indicate very small investment or simply the lack of effort. Although prospects may be wise enough to not consider as unprofessional, they could start to look for other signs that we are. Eventually, if we are perceived as cheap, our services and products could be considered as mediocre compared to the competition. This will direct affect our sales and our growth will be hampered. Our survival in the industry will be threatened, due to the implied issues in credibility.
Credibility is an essential component in ensuring success in the business and it can’t be over-emphasized. Prospects should know that they can trust us with their investment and they are willing to do business with us. New and smaller business should work harder to prove to the market that they are trustworthy, in this case, we need to use proper email name. Having our own domain name on the email address can send the strong signal that we are dependable and here to stay. Unfortunately, just using our own name isn’t enough. Because critical information is often sent through email, we should make sure that our email platforms are secure enough. In fact, Google and Yahoo could provide safer solutions than our own in-house emails solutions. We need to use strict regulations that are associated with higher level of security and privacy standards. In general, we get what we pay for. Although purchasing our own domain name is easy and cheap, their email solutions could vary and it may be necessary to spend more money for safer platforms.