Learn why buyers do their own research instead of talking to sales—and how missing information creates distrust.

If you have noticed buyers avoiding sales conversations, doing their own research, or questioning everything you say, you are not imagining it. Buyer skepticism is at an all-time high, driven by misinformation, past experiences, and a growing lack of trust in business leaders. This conversation dives into the mindset shifts and practical strategies B2B leaders need to reduce uncertainty, overcome epistemic vigilance, and earn trust before a buyer ever speaks to sales.

📘 Recommended Resources

Lead with Trust: https://www.trustleader.co/lead-with-trust-book

Berg, Dickhaut & McCabe (1995) — the original Trust Game experiment.

Epistemic Vigilance research

⏰Episode Timestamps:

00:00 The Importance of Transparency in Trust Building

09:21 Understanding Complete Transparency

11:51 The Role of Epistemic Vigilance

14:00 Building Foundational Trust

18:21 Practical Steps for Transparency

🧠 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why trust cannot be built long-term without complete transparency
• How epistemic vigilance shapes modern buyer behavior
• What information buyers need to make independent, confident decisions
• How transparency signals competence, reliability, and integrity
• What practical transparency looks like in real B2B organizations

👤 About the Host

Hannah Eisenberg is the founder of TrustLeader and creator of the TrustLeader Framework. With 25+ years of B2B marketing and sales experience, including a decade at SAP Global Marketing and 10+ years as a HubSpot partner, she helps leaders worldwide achieve market leadership by making trust their most significant competitive advantage.

🔗 Connect With Me

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannaheisenberg/

🎧 Listen to the Podcast

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@trustleader-lead-with-trust

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/lead-with-trust/id1732848496?l=da

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2LYVbwkrkTuJKh3mHGNLBH

Captivate.fm: https://feeds.captivate.fm/leadwithtrustpodcast/

Summary

Most business leaders know trust matters—but very few know how to build it on purpose. Buyers are more cautious, more skeptical, and quicker to walk away, which makes relying on “good intentions” or old playbooks risky at best.

In this episode, Hannah Eisenberg shares the TrustLeader Framework, the result of 25 years working hands-on in B2B marketing and sales, from large software companies to founder-led businesses in the messy middle

You will learn how this framework will help you turn trust into something practical, measurable, and repeatable—so it can actually support growth instead of quietly holding it back.

What You’ll Learn:

• How the TrustLeader Framework turns trust into something you can operationalize
• What trust really means in a business context, and why buyers experience it as risk and vulnerability
• The three phases of trust and what must be true before you can move to the next one
• What the two trust maturity jumps are—and what changes when you reach them
• Why most companies unknowingly build or destroy trust by accident
• How to start building trust intentionally without overwhelming your organization

Summary

Buyers have more information, more access, and more control than ever before—yet they have less confidence than ever, decisions are delayed, and post-purchase regret is rising. In this episode of Lead with Trust, Hannah Eisenberg explains why the traditional 7–11–4 rule no longer reflects how trust forms in modern B2B buying. She introduces the much larger and morphed trust gap leaders face today: not a lack of exposure, but a lack of belief and emotional safety. This episode offers a more straightforward way to think about trust as risk reduction, not persuasion.

What You’ll Learn

• What the 7–11–4 rule was actually describing—and why it no longer explains buyer trust
• Why more of the same content will increase hesitation instead of confidence
• Why buyers struggle to know what to believe
• Why epistemic trust has become the hidden bottleneck in B2B decisions
• How validation reduces the risk of being wrong
• Why emotional safety is what ultimately turns belief into action

Resources:

• B2B buyers consume 13+ pieces of content before making a decision. Source: Demand Gen Report / FocusVision
• 70% of the B2B buying journey happens independently before contacting sales. Source: Forrester / SiriusDecisions
• 75% of buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience. Source: Gartner
• 56% of major B2B purchases end in regret. Source: Gartner
• 86% of B2B deals stall during the buying process. Source: Forrester
• ZMOT study showed buyers doubled the number of sources consulted (5.2 → 10.4) Source: Google ZMOT (2011, 2021 update)