Ten things I learned about B2B Trust in 2025
Trust has emerged as the defining currency of modern B2B marketing. But what does it really mean to build trust in complex business relationships, and how can organisations systematically develop it as a competitive advantage?
These are the questions that drive the ‘Trust & Influence in B2B’ podcast, which I launched in March 2025, and which has been my primary focus over the past year. Over the course of numerous conversations with some of the most important, influential and inspirational people in B2B, the podcast has explored how trust functions as both a foundation and a differentiator in business-to-business contexts.
Guests have included practitioners from organisations ranging from global consultancies like Edelman, EY, PwC and Capgemini to specialist agencies and research companies like Circana. Authors, innovators and CMOs from leading technology companies have also shared their perspectives.
Here are ten of the most compelling lessons that have emerged from these discussions, with links to the episodes where these points are explored in detail.
1. Trust is not fluffy – it’s a risk mitigator and growth accelerator
Perhaps the most emphatic reframing of trust comes from Kate Mackie, Partner at EY: “The biggest myth is that it’s fluffy or that it is decoration. It’s absolutely core to everything that you’re doing. It’s a risk mitigator. It’s a growth accelerator.” This isn’t soft thinking dressed up as strategy—it’s a direct challenge to organisations that treat trust as peripheral, applying it as a polish after the ‘real work’ of driving pipeline and revenue. Trust, Mackie argues, should be foundational infrastructure.
2. Internal alignment shapes external trust – buyers feel your fragmentation
Teresa Allan, managing partner at Magnus Consulting, identifies a truth that many organisations overlook: internal dysfunction is visible to buyers. “If there’s no alignment internally across the buying process, the buyer is going to feel that fragmentation, that misalignment, that lack of cohesion and trust,” she observes. When marketing hands off to sales, and sales hands off to customer success, buyers experience either a joined-up journey or a disjointed one. High-confidence organisations signal that they have their act together. Low-confidence organisations—no matter how ambitious their targets—signal risk.
3. Stories trigger biological trust responses that data alone cannot
Giuseppe Caltabiano, Senior Director of Marketing at AVK, brings academic rigour to the storytelling argument: stories increase brain activity five-fold compared to data alone and trigger oxytocin—the empathy hormone—which generates confidence and trust. “Stories simply work,” he explains. “It’s not a matter of B2B or B2C. We are humans running businesses. Stories definitely attract people more than any kind of rational approach.” The implication? Lead with narrative that makes buyers care, then support with evidence that makes them trust.
4. Trust is the critical enabler of innovation
Author Carla Johnson inverts the common assumption that trust follows from successful innovation. Instead, she argues, trust precedes it. In organisations where people fear failure—where speaking up carries career risk—innovation stalls. The ’emperor’s new clothes’ dynamic takes hold. High-trust teams, by contrast, feel safe enough to propose ideas, test approaches, and learn from what doesn’t work. Trust isn’t the outcome of innovation; it’s the precondition that makes innovation possible.
5. Audiences want to hear from experts, not just brands
Vito Labate, VP of Global Industry Marketing at Capgemini, identifies a significant shift in what audiences respond to: “I think there’s a resistance now to things that feel corporately messaged versus expert-led advocacy. Audiences want to hear from experts, not just brands. The most successful thought leadership feels authored and discussed by the industry experts themselves. It’s not the language of a marketing team.” When executives actively share insights on social platforms and at events, the impact multiplies—because buyers trust individuals they perceive as genuine practitioners.
6. Transparency builds trust—including transparency about mistakes
Antonia Wade, Global Chief Marketing Officer at PwC, offers a counterintuitive insight: acknowledging errors can strengthen rather than undermine trust. “Being transparent about what we’ve learned, when we’ve succeeded, but also where we’ve made a call that wasn’t the right call and we quickly course-corrected—I think that’s fundamental to building trust,” she explains. “That transparency, that honesty, rather than trying to market your way out of mistakes.” In a world where corporate communications often feel defensive, the willingness to admit imperfection signals authenticity.
7. Trust is what gets you invited to bid
Andrew Mildren, Managing Director of Edelman Business Marketing for EMEA, articulates the commercial mechanics of trust with clarity: “Trust is what helps you get invited to bid more often. It’s what helps you close deals, helps you cross and upsell, helps you charge a better margin for your products and services.” In an environment where products and services increasingly look similar, trust becomes the differentiator that determines which vendor wins. It’s not an abstract value—it’s the foundation of commercial success.
8. Trust is hard-earned but easily lost
The asymmetry between building and destroying trust demands constant vigilance. Saima Rashid, CMO of Workhuman (but at the time 6Sense), puts it plainly: “Brand and trust are hard-earned but easily lost, so you have to have them front and centre no matter what specific marketing or sales activity you’re running.” This principle has particular relevance for intent data and personalisation, where the line between helpful engagement and intrusive behaviour can be uncomfortably thin. As Rashid notes with characteristic directness: “It serves nobody to be a creeper.”
9. AI will make trustworthiness the ultimate differentiator
As artificial intelligence makes content production faster and more accessible, the flood of undifferentiated material makes authentic expertise more valuable. Rob Mitchell, founder of FT Longitude, identifies the emerging dynamic: “Knowing that you can trust this brand to have reliable and accurate information, that it’s not trying to trick you into thinking something about a particular topic—that’s going to be a massively important currency going forward for thought leadership.” In a world of AI-generated content, consistency and credibility become the scarce resources.
10. Data veracity is now under unprecedented pressure
The foundation of trust—the reliability of information itself—faces new challenges. Ananda Roy, VP of Thought Leadership at Circana, identifies the emerging concern: “There are questions around the veracity of data. We know of the volume and the velocity, but the veracity of data is now becoming a real issue. There is a lot of excitement around new technologies, including AI, but very few folks understand some of the biases in the models and some of the guardrails that you need to put in place.” Organisations that can demonstrate rigour in their data practices will build stronger trust.
These ten insights point toward a consistent theme: in B2B marketing, trust is not a soft concept but a hard-edged competitive advantage that can be systematically built, measured, and leveraged. From storytelling to transparency, from internal alignment to data integrity, the organisations that succeed will be those that treat trust as infrastructure rather than aspiration.