The Zero Moment of Truth – and why It matters more than ever

What do people find when they search for you online and what decision are they making before you even meet? In this episode of Three Steps Ahead, Martin Gibbs and Simon Cossey take a practical deep dive into the modern Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) — the critical moment where clients, employers, prospects and connections form an opinion about you before the meeting even begins.

In 2026, your personal brand is no longer optional. LinkedIn profiles, company bios, podcasts, Google results, social media activity and online reputation all combine to create a digital first impression that can open, or quietly close opportunities.

This episode explores:
- Why buyers often decide before the first conversation
- The “pattern match” effect and instant credibility signals
- How people now “triangulate” your online presence
- The silent red flags that damage trust
- Why an inactive LinkedIn profile says more than you think
- Moving from a passive CV to an active signal of expertise
- Borrowed credibility and the importance of networks
- The 60-second online audit test
- How leaders stay Three Steps Ahead by building visibility before they need it

A short, practical and highly relevant episode for business leaders, advisers, professionals and anyone building a reputation in a digital-first world.

#ThreeStepsAhead #ZMOT #PersonalBrand #Leadership #LinkedIn #BusinessStrategy #DigitalReputation #Marketing #ProfessionalServices #businessgrowth 

More about Three Steps Ahead
Three Steps Ahead is a business and leadership podcast for business owners, founders and senior leaders who want practical strategy that actually works. Most business podcasts talk about what happened - Three Steps Ahead is about what you should do next.

• Who it’s for: business leaders, founders, senior managers
• What makes it different: practical strategy, simple thinking, real experience
• Why now: 2026 is shaping up to be volatile — clarity matters more than ever

Drawing on decades of advisory, mentoring and peer-group experience, the podcast focuses on how leaders plan well, think beyond the immediate, and navigate uncertainty with confidence.

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Hosted by: Martin Gibbs | Richard Miller | Simon Cossey

Three Steps Ahead - Practical strategy for the next move

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Three Steps Ahead podcast. Today it's myself, Martin Gibbs, and Simon Cosse. Hi, Simon. Good morning, Martin. Good morning. No Richard Miller with us today. Richard will be back in a future episode, but uh he is off yet again, rewilding parts of Britain. So today's topic, Simon, one what we wanted to do is a bit of a deep dive into something that we've touched on in at least one previous episode. And it's an intriguing area for you and one that resonates for me. And this is something called the Zero Moment of Truth.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Zero Moment of Truth, developed in 2011 by a Google executive. And it it was mapping the customer journey to an extent, but that moment of truth when a customer decides to buy a product from you. Love a stat, early stat in the in the uh in the podcast today. This must be a record for getting your statistic in 80% earlier than normal. Absolutely. Nearly 90% of consumers research a product or service before purchasing it. And in a sense, obviously, we talk a lot about professional services. Back in 2011, that statistic. No, that was from a couple of years ago and spotted that. Whether you're buying a fridge freezer or whatever you might be buying for your home, why should professional services shopping be any different? So yeah, it's it's an absolute fascinating point that there's lots and lots of airtime about it and lots and lots of uh reading that can be done. Again, it comes down to actually just lifting a few of those parts and let's get it into practice.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So I think the what the way I first heard about Zero Moment of Truth, and I think I actually included this in a in a conference presentation I did probably about 2012. But this goes back to as you were talking about a fridge freezer. But you know, if you're looking to buy a washing machine or a fridge freezer back in 2011-2012, you'd Google it and you'd decide it's going to be whatever brand of machine that you wanted, you'd you'd understand the features, and then Google could tell you where you could get it for the best price. So by the time you walked into Curry's on Saturday afternoon, you'd really already made your mind up. So the zero moment of truth had come right at the start of the uh the buying process. Today, I think there's a tie-in between the zero moment of truth, your reputation, and your personal brand. In that, your reputation is what other people say about you. Your personal brand is what you say about yourself, and the zero moment of truth is where the two collide. It's where personal brand and reputation meet in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

To quote something that we do like, it sounds like a virtual Venn diagram there, Martin. I think it's interesting as well. It's like working on the one in ten principle. If you were doing a Google search back in 2011, you'd have probably come up with 10 choices, you know, five, six, seven things you might well have looked at. But that zero moment of truth that was applied then has significantly changed in today's environment. In 2026, it's zero moment of truth is a very different point than it was, say, 15 years ago. And that's because AI has superseded it. The research is not done by us necessarily, we do a single piece of research, perhaps by trying to ask AI the best question we possibly can. So we're now dealing with decisions that are delivered as a single answer. So your zero moment of truth won't be me going through and looking at five or six different websites and going, oh, I like that bit, I like that bit, oh, that's a good point. That's a good point. It will be a single question and a single answer. So, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

A good example here is I have bought four pairs of a particular type of outdoor walking approach shoe called a Scarpa Vortex GTX. And I've bought four pairs of them so far, and I've worn all four out. The heel is falling off on my latest pair. So at the weekend, I was doing a bit of research because every time I go and look to buy another pair, I go around in a circle, and it's these Scarpa Vortex shoes. You know, they're the ones that fit my needs and what I want. They brought out a newer version that's 50 quid more, and ChatGPT chatted me through the whole thing, compared, contrasted, and basically concluded for the type of walking I do, and the fact that I've bought four pairs of these shoes and been happy with them, its best suggestion was just buy another pair, and this is where you can get them cheapest.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, I mean, it it's coming down to this is something I know we've spoken about in the past, is is is that digital nod, if you want to call it that, isn't it? It's you know, this is now so important. And again, you know, whether it's scarper shoes or uh, you know, a fridge freezer, professional service, whether you're accountants, lawyers, surveyors, marketeers, whatever aspect of professional services you deliver, you're going to be looked up. It's no longer the search that is the key, albeit the search is still really important because something else is doing that, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I think this is where we perhaps jump to number one on our on our on our list of things we wanted to talk about. Number one is the the focus with the zero moment of truth has shifted from Googling you to triangulating you. With the zero moment of truth, the decision is just whether somebody wants to work with you is often made before the meeting is even accepted. It's not a it's not a case of that they're checking you out before the meeting happens. They've made the decision whether they want to do business with you before they've even reached out to book the meeting. So you may never know about missed opportunities because your pipeline is self-filtering unless you get this triangulation right.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

They're no longer deciding whether they need your help at that point. You know, for professional services, they're deciding who they can trust. They'll have whittled it down. Rightly or wrongly, the systems are there that are going to uh to do that. So it's that whittle down, and clearly professional services, whatever discipline you're in, is a very high trust. It's about people, all the bits about AI and all this, it's about building that individual personal approach, supporting that, not replacing it in any shape or form. If anything, it's putting greater emphasis on you being omnipresent.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

What you might call the pattern match effect. This is where somebody's looking at your profile and is trying to work out whether you are somebody they can gel with, or somebody they want to work with, or somebody they want to be their advisor. So proof of capability on LinkedIn, on your corporate website, is all key. Does this person look like somebody I can trust? Do they operate at my level? Do they talk the way that I talk? Your own zero moment of truth needs to signal authority, relevance, and a certain familiarity that they can that they can identify with you.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, and that familiarity is going to come from either you're you can demonstrate that you're well known for a particular role or niche or something like that. You know, you might be visible locally. People are trying to find people to deal with locally, the kind of owner-managed business size. If they go on and they see they've got a testimonial from, you know, Dave Engineering Limited down the road because you did a good job for them and the MD's been online and quite happy to recommend you. That's a really powerful endorsement because immediately you see they've taken time out to say that, and that could be mirrored again onto the company website.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Testimonials are important. I know I picked up a really nice corporate finance project probably about 10 years ago now, that then became a really good client. We'd done a management buyout for a particular client, and there was an article that we had in the I think it was the Coventry in Warwickshire in Business, the Chamber newsletter that just talked in overview terms what we'd done for this one client. And somebody rang me up and said, Martin, I've read this article. Can you come and have a chat with me? Because I'd like you to do for me what you did for this client. And that then led on to the next bit. So proof of capability.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah, I mean, I we will talk about content. You can talk about blogs. You can do technical stuff, which I think is always useful, especially if that technical stuff is highlighting how an issue might well be solved. But when we talk about the content stuff and the blog stuff, it's got to be really personal. These are the things that work on giving a proper sense of you. And as you can tell, hopefully the listeners and and the watchers of our podcast can see it's that authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So that leads on to the next point then. What are the red flags? What can immediately kill any chance you've got of getting this piece of business or making this connection? What are the silent red flags? So common zero moment of truth killers having an outdated or an inactive LinkedIn profile.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

What's the phrase I'm looking for? Not particularly descriptive, let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

If it's not accessible, if if you look at it and you look at somebody's headline and you still don't understand what they do, it's meant to be a living document. Another red flag is if there's a mismatch between the tone and the language and the look of somebody's personal profile, say on LinkedIn, there's a mismatch between what they're saying about themselves and what's on their corporate website and the message that comes across. That is going to be a zero moment of truth killer. Yeah, I mean the two have got to work in close harmony. Another one is just an absence. I was going to say all the lights are on, but nobody's home. Quite often I look at somebody's LinkedIn profile and it's like, well, there's no posts. Or there's one post and it's sort of three years ago. Visible thinking and proof of capability that's up to date both on LinkedIn and on your website.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Because LinkedIn can become a storybook of what you're doing in the flesh, let's call it that. So if you're out there networking and attending industry events and pressing the flesh, as we would have said, in terms of demonstrating capability, looking to expand your business and trying to pick up a bit of work, specific work here and there, then your LinkedIn profile really is your online record of that. It's showing you personally, it shows where you've been, what you've been doing, who you've spoken with. The two things, whilst are again are very interchangeable, it you should be doing many of the things that you perhaps write about or post or share or like or comment on other people's posts in real life.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

My Instagram account, which is at the connected accountant, which has been somewhat inactive uh for the last nine months because uh I'm no longer an accountant. But I am connected. But that that Instagram feed was designed really to just be pulling together lots of interesting people I'd met, places I'd been, stuff that I'd done. And if anything was uh now is good to look back on as a bit of a scrapbook, but that was integrated with what I was putting onto onto LinkedIn as well. So there'd be more detail on LinkedIn and just the images really on um on Instagram. This comes back to another red flag, which is poor quality photos or poor quality branding. A bad photo, a bad headshot. I mean, you know, okay, you know, you and I are not necessarily George Clooney and Brad Pitt, although maybe we are Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook in in reverse.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Yeah, I mean, it's not like we're sitting here talking about rocket science stuff in any shape or form. Just make sure it, you know, I I've I've joked with one or two people that you you go out or you've spotted on an on a list of attendees at a networking event, and and you know, the photo really doesn't bear any resemblance. So uh and surprisingly, the number of people who don't use the banner effectively, but they're just really, really simple things to find out.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

And there are things like as well, you talk about the banner photograph. The file name for the banner photograph has to be something relevant that's got your name in and maybe your company's name in, not just the generic name and the file name of your profile image needs to have your name in it rather than being, you know, one, two, three, four, five.jpg or something.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I think, Martin, I think when it comes to this, look, if you've got what is an outdated profile or an incomplete profile, because if you're incomplete there, people might make an assumption that you're incomplete in other places.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

I think the conclusion on that, an empty or outdated profile doesn't say nothing, it actually says something negative. The next angle we wanted to look at was moving from having a passive profile to actually giving an active signal. If you treat LinkedIn as your C V.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I think very simply, there's the three elements of it. Yep. Very simply, cut to the chase, isn't it? Your profile, yes, it's going to feel a little C V like, because they are then they're built that way. But what you can do throughout is it's a credibility profile, not a C V. The content that you create, and it doesn't have to be every day or every week necessarily, is demonstrating to people your relevance. Yeah, you're producing something that shows that you're up with the latest thinking. And I think as well, people obviously get a bit siloed thinking I've written content for a LinkedIn blog. You need to make sure that stuff's hitting your website, and then you need to make sure that people are sharing that content, you know, with clients and potentials. But we need to make sure that it's hitting the right desk.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Just focusing it back on this zero moment of truth, then your profile is your credibility. The content that's in there is the proof of your relevance, and the engagement that you get with people, comments and likes and reshares, that is the proof of your relevance. Get all of that right, and you're going to be hitting the sweet spot of this zero moment of truth. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

And we're using LinkedIn as an example here. Yeah. But again, I would say that you need to be doing those things in the flesh. If you're doing those things in every interaction, touch point that you have with either existing clients or potential clients, it'll come together.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

You talked about credibility a few minutes ago. So zero moment of truth. The concept of borrowed credibility, which is something that's very powerful and it's easy to overlook. People will judge you by the people you're seen with. The people who comment on your posts and the comments that you make on other people's posts, who you're seen in posts with, and who you collaborate with.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Both of us are being using Coventry Warwickshire first, for an example. That's a very good platform. Arguably the number one platform across Coventry Warwickshire for professionals to network and build relationships and ultimately build referral relationships. The network to be in for professionals that count. Absolutely. No agenda coffees that you have afterwards absolutely helps build that referral. Also, you're in a like-minded group of people that also deal with the type of clients that you probably want to be acting for, which is important. Comments, you know, you need to take an interest in perhaps a particular field. Let's let's keep it keep it at the hockey. Exactly. There you go. So clearly, if you talk about sport, obviously I'm quite passionate about that, as you can see from behind. Uh, and another hockey post will be on its way shortly, definitely. But where you try and link something that you do outside of work, something I'm working on the moment, is looking at the lessons that I can translate from hockey and what do they mean in the business world. Yeah. So, you know, it's real life things that you do on a Saturday afternoon that you go, well, actually, I can I can translate that.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So just to wrap up then, the the zero moment of truth and this concept of borrowed credibility, having guests on your podcast and basking in their limelight is apparently a great way of borrowing credibility. We are having a special guest on the next episode of the podcast, which in fact is going to be recorded, I think, next week, but we will see. Maybe just sort of coming towards a bit of a conclusion then. Zero Moment of Truth and a 60-second audit test. If I Googled you right now, Simon, what would I be able to glean about you in 60 seconds? What shows up first? Does it look current? Does it position you clearly? And would as a result I feel comfortable buying from you? I'm sure I would with you, Simon. In fact, I would.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Clearly, I'd like to say the answers would be yes to all of those. Yeah, but even however active and visible you might be, you know, you come back and you've got me thinking, well, perhaps I need to do that exercise again on myself. And it's kind of almost an iteration each month because the market moves and perceptions move. It's worth doing. I think as long as you're getting the some core bits correct. So that credibility piece, because that generally is a historic bit, you know, keep that up to date. Activity. Yeah, everyone has a few weeks when they're not particularly Easter's not a particularly active time. People sort of do put their phones down on the computers for a bit. The hockey season's come to an end now. So uh well, before we get to summer league, anyway, I definitely feel that you need to be always thinking about how you position yourself. And that again comes back to this is not just a LinkedIn lesson. You know, we used to call it the elevator pitch. I'd go to the others, you've got 60 seconds in in a room meeting a client. What would your key points you'd want to get across?

SPEAKER_01 18:13

When you talk to people and you say, right, what is your elevator pitch if they're within within your own organization and they freeze?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

And again, that you know, that's a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that elevator pitch, because people think I've got to try and do everything in 60 seconds, and that's not the case. Sometimes it is a very thoughtful one line that will demonstrate your relevance to that person in the room with you.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

And if you get too salesy with that elevator pitch, it's gonna be just a straight turn-off. But you but you need to think through, you know, when somebody says, What do you do? Where are you from? And you need to think it through from the zero moment of truth angle. What are you gonna say? How are you gonna pitch it? And how is that gonna help you keep three steps ahead?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Indeed, and perhaps, Martin, almost the most telling moment is perhaps not what you say, it's if you pause before you say anything, because that's a signal to say, ah, ooh, what am I going to say to that person? Whereas you should be in a i in a place where you've probably got you know three or four lines that you've developed over some time in the bank, so to speak, that you go, oh, yeah, that's funny you should mention that. This is what we've been doing with our clients, and this is how how we look to help people through this, this, and this, which is constructing something along those lines. Now, I wouldn't try and cram everything in before you go to a meeting, bit of meeting prep here. If I get asked what I do, what am I going to say? You'll know who you're going to see, you know what they're going to do. Can you make something from your bank relevant to them in that 60 seconds?

SPEAKER_01 19:48

And is there anything that you've researched about them that can then be a complication opener? Absolutely. I was used to find things like a watch. I think personally watches say a lot about people. This is a very, very large Garmin Phoenix 7. But you look at somebody's watch, they've got a watch like this on. They've got their steps today. Are they a runner? Are they a walker? Are they a cyclist? You can quite quickly work out some common ground with somebody just by what they've got on their wrists. Watches tend to fall into the category of if you know what they are, you know what they are. And only about 1% of people are remotely interested. I like to look for angles on things and look for competition starters.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

And and if you're looking to go to a client, you probably look them up on the website. You're probably going to look them up on LinkedIn. You're going to do all the things that we've been talking about that you need to make sure that your outward-facing profile is hitting the buttons. We need to ensure that we're not best in class, but certainly top of the pack.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

So just to conclude it then, to go back to what we said really right back at the start, zero moment of truth, professional reputation, and personal brand. Yeah. Reputation is what people say about you. Their personal brand is what you say about yourself. And the zero moment of truth is where the two meet. But if you only start thinking about your profile at the point when you want something, then you're already behind the curve. So to hit that zero moment of truth, you need to make sure that you've got there first, that you've triangulated back and made sure that what is online is pitching you in the right way.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Absolutely. You're too late to the party, aren't you? And and we're all guilty of that or have been guilty over our time of, oh, I must do that. Yeah, that's why you've just got to invest a little bit of time, little small bits of time, don't feel as bad as having to invest a big bit of time when you need to update something because.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

If somebody listening or watching this wants some help just giving a quick overview of their LinkedIn profile, for example, Simon will very quickly give you a quick one minute, two minute audit, give you some pointers. There's an amazing number of things that you can pick up and glean about somebody, or things that you can change quite quickly. They're going to have a dramatic. Dramatic impact on the way that you are perceived and the way that you come across.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

But also about how that can improve your reach, which is ultimately what you want to do.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

So for that zero moment of truth, you only get one opportunity to make a first impression. So make sure you're on it. It's as good as it can be, yeah. Okay. Well, with that then, Simon, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I've got one thing that I could have said actually. Woody Allen is often credited with saying 80% of success is showing up.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

My favorite Woody Allen quote comes from I'm trying to think which one it is now. It's him and Sally Field, and she's driving a Volkswagen Beetle, and she's driving him round New York, I think it is, and they pull up at the curb and she's parked pretty badly, and he gets out of the car and says, It's all right, we can walk to the curb from here. One of my favorite Woody Allen quotes. We will be back with another episode in a few weeks. I've been hinting at a guest coming up next time. But Simon, thank you very much. Martin, thank you.