Something significant has happened to the environment in which business development professionals operate. And most BD teams have not yet fully reckoned with it.

The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, based on more than 33,000 respondents across 28 countries, found that 61% of people globally now report a moderate-to-high sense of grievance toward institutions, including businesses. Economic fears, information overload, and the spread of AI-generated content have combined to produce what Edelman CEO, Richard Edelman, describes as a world in “a descent into grievance.”

And yet, within this same landscape, business remains the most trusted institution globally, significantly ahead of government, NGOs, and media. Business is trusted in 15 of the 28 countries measured. It is, in Edelman’s phrase, “a relative shining star.”

That distinction matters enormously for business development professionals. It means that the raw material for building trust is available but that it must be earned with extraordinary care in an environment where buyers are more sceptical, more informed, and more attuned to authenticity than at any previous point in modern business history.

After more than 10 years as a global strategist and US business development professional engaged by business leaders scaling internationally, I have watched the centre of gravity in BD shift from activity to credibility, from pipeline to reputation, and from outreach to relationship depth. This article argues that business development in 2026 is no longer primarily a commercial function. It is a reputation function. And the professionals who understand that distinction and build accordingly will outperform those who do not.

The New Buying Environment: Scepticism at Scale

To understand why BD must evolve into a reputation function, it helps to understand what buyers are navigating today.

Forrester’s 2026 B2B predictions describe a buying environment defined by economic uncertainty, cost pressures, and a flood of AI-generated content. Buyers are, in Forrester’s framing, “demanding transparency, validation, and measurable outcomes.” The era of persuasive promises and polished pitch decks is, in their assessment, fading fast.

INFUSE’s Outlook 2026 report, drawing on proprietary research from more than 2,300 B2B go-to-market leaders identifies what it calls the paradoxical challenge of modern GTM: despite unprecedented access to information, buyers are experiencing lower confidence in their decision-making than ever before. Abundant data has not produced clarity. It has produced confusion, and with it, a heightened reliance on trust as a decision-making shortcut.

“In 2026, B2B buyers won’t just be looking for solutions; they’ll be looking for proof.
Trust is no longer a soft metric. It’s a strategic imperative.”
Forrester, Predictions 2026: Trust Will Be The Ultimate Currency For B2B Buyers

The implications for BD professionals are direct. When buyers are overwhelmed and sceptical, they do not open more inbound pitches; they become more selective about whose voice they listen to. They rely more heavily on professional networks, trusted advisors, and peer recommendations. They gravitate toward individuals and organisations whose reputations precede them, whose expertise is demonstrable, and whose track records are visible.

In this environment, the BD professional who leads with a cold pitch is fighting an uphill battle. The BD professional who arrives already known, already respected, and already associated with demonstrated expertise is operating from a position of significant advantage.

The Forrester Trust Gap: What B2B Companies Get Wrong

One of the most striking findings in Forrester’s ongoing trust research is what they call the B2B trust gap: the gulf between how trustworthy companies believe themselves to be and how their audiences actually perceive them.

In Forrester’s research, 92% of B2B marketing and brand leaders believed they were more honest than the average company. Ninety per cent believed customers trusted their commitments more than the average. And yet the data on actual trust levels tell a different story entirely; trust in B2B-heavy sectors has been in steady decline for decades, and the gap between self-perception and reality has never been wider.

This matters for BD because much of the BD activity designed to build trust i.e. case studies, testimonials, awards, polished brand materials, is produced and evaluated internally by people who already believe the company is trustworthy. It is not evaluated against the sceptical, external frame of reference that a potential partner or buyer actually brings to the table.

“B2B buyers crave trust. When we conducted a meta-analysis of almost 20,000 survey responses across multiple market segments, trust was always the most important brand attribute for buyers.”
Forrester Research, Closing the B2B Trust Gap

The implication is not that companies should stop producing content or thought leadership. The most powerful trust signal in 2026 is not what a company says about itself. It is what credible, independent others say about it. And that is built through relationships, and specifically through the depth, quality, and longevity of the professional network a BD leader has cultivated over years.

Reputation as Infrastructure: The Network You Build Before You Need It

The central insight that separates professionals who think of BD as a sales function from those who think of it as a reputation function is this: the most valuable work in business development happens long before any deal is on the table.

A professional reputation is not built in a quarter. It is not built in a year. It is built across a career; through the accumulated weight of relationships maintained, commitments honoured, expertise shared generously, and credibility earned in the rooms where it counts. In the US market in particular, where the question “who sent you?” can determine whether a meeting happens and whether a deal closes, the depth of a BD professional’s existing network is not a nice-to-have. It is the primary asset they bring to the table.

For nearly 15 years of building and sustaining a global professional network, with particular depth in the US market, I have come to understand network capital as operating by its own distinct economic logic. Unlike financial capital, which depreciates without active management, professional relationships can compound over time when properly maintained. A colleague you first met a decade ago, with whom you have stayed genuinely connected, is an exponentially more powerful resource than someone you met six months ago. The trust accumulated over years of consistent, mutual engagement is not available to those who start building their network only when they need it.

“Trust grows exponentially. Each relationship affects other relationships.
That’s why referrals turn into sales faster, deals are bigger, and partnerships are better than cold pipelines.”
Salestech Star, Beyond Cold Outreach: How Trust Is Becoming a Scalable Growth Channel (2026)

The US Market: Why Trust Is the Entry Ticket

Not all markets place equal weight on trust in the BD process. But the US market places particular emphasis on personal credibility, peer-to-peer validation, and the quality of introductions as a precondition for serious commercial engagement.

For international companies seeking to enter the US, this dynamic is underestimated. The US market is simultaneously more accessible in surface interactions and more relationship-dependent in substance than most international business leaders expect. Enterprise buyers can be warm, direct, and immediately collegial in first conversations yet genuinely slow to commit commercially without the prior establishment of trust. The gap between a friendly initial meeting and a signed agreement is often not a product gap or a pricing gap. It is a trust gap.

This is why the quality of one’s US network matters so disproportionately for international scaleups. Over a decade of operating in the US market, building relationships with advisors, industry leaders, and strategic partners across sectors creates something that cannot be replicated quickly: the standing to make introductions that carry genuine weight, and the context to understand which doors are worth opening and which are not.

The Edelman Trust Barometer findings reinforce this. Trust is increasingly “local”, i.e. earned peer-to-peer, within communities of practice and professional networks, rather than broadcast from institutions outward. For a scaleup entering the US, accessing an existing, trusted local network is not a shortcut. It is the strategically correct entry point.

The AI Disruption: Why Human Credibility Has Never Been More Valuable

There is an important dimension to the current trust environment worth exploring: the role of AI in both creating and intensifying the trust deficit.

AI has radically reduced the cost of producing content, running outreach, and manufacturing the surface markers of expertise. Almost any individual or organisation can now project credibility, polish, and authority at scale. The result is a market where buyers and partners increasingly struggle to tell genuine expertise apart from its generated imitation.

Forrester’s 2026 predictions explicitly identify ungoverned AI in commercial applications as a significant risk to B2B relationships, projecting more than $10 billion in enterprise loss due to AI-generated misrepresentation and hallucinations.

“Human expertise will rival GenAI in appeal as buyers seek deeper validation. Buyers will increasingly turn to human interactions to validate AI-generated insights and ensure that offerings meet their needs.”
Forrester, Predictions 2026: Trust Will Be The Ultimate Currency For B2B Buyers

This creates a paradox that works in favour of BD professionals who have built genuine, long-term networks: in a world flooded with AI-generated signals of expertise, the authentic relationship, the one established through years of mutual engagement, real conversations, and demonstrated reliability, becomes exponentially more distinctive.

How to Nurture and Sustain a Global Network: The Practical Framework

Understanding the value of a professional network is not the same as knowing how to build, maintain, and grow one across geographies and over time. What follows is the framework I have developed as a global BD professional.

1. Adopt a Giving-First Orientation

I learnt a valuable lesson on my first working day at a global multinational in New York City. The instructions from my leader were clear: spend the first 6 weeks meeting and building relationships with business partners. That was my only task. When I asked for clarification, she explained, “If you don’t build relationships now, when you need to work on initiatives and obtain their input, they won’t engage.” My next 6 weeks were a “listening tour” with my business partners; learning, listening, questioning, understanding – and learning to drink Starbucks coffee with a smile.

The foundation of every professional relationship is the same: one party gave before they asked. In a world saturated with transactional outreach, the BD professional who sends an introduction, shares a relevant insight, makes a useful connection, or offers support without any immediate request in return is immediately distinctive. That is, the most effective BD professionals are “givers” first, then “takers”.

2. Practise Deliberate, Consistent Follow-Through

The most common failure mode in professional network maintenance is not neglect in the early stages of a relationship; it is the failure to sustain contact once the immediate context that created the relationship has passed. This requires a structured approach: periodic check-ins that are personalised, relevant, and not transactionally motivated. 

3. Invest in In-Person Moments Strategically

The most durable professional relationships – the ones that generate warm introductions, co-investment in opportunities, and genuine advocacy – are almost universally grounded in face-to-face interaction at some point. For a global BD network, this means making strategic in-person investments at the conferences, events, and markets where your most important relationships converge.

4. Be Genuinely Useful to the Network, Not Just to Individual Contacts

The BD professional is known for making relevant introductions, and thinking about the interests of people across their network. Contributing to the community’s knowledge and resources becomes a node that others route through.

5. Maintain Your Professional Profile as a Trust Signal

In 2026, your visible professional profile, including the body of thought leadership you have published, the events at which you have spoken, and the organisations with which you are associated, is not merely a marketing asset. It is a trust infrastructure that validates your credibility to those who have not yet met you in person.

6. Re-engage Dormant Relationships with Intention

Every professional with a substantial career has a reservoir of relationships that were once active and have since gone quiet. These are not lost; they are sleeping. A thoughtful, personalised re-engagement, referencing a shared experience, acknowledging something in their recent professional journey, offering something relevant, can restore a dormant relationship to active value with remarkable efficiency.

The BD Professional as Trust Broker

The Edelman Trust Barometer’s most important insight for BD professionals is perhaps its observation that trust has moved from being conveyed top-down by institutions to being transmitted peer-to-peer within communities. Business leaders occupy a unique position in this environment, more trusted than government, more credible than media, and capable of acting as trust brokers in a world where institutional credibility has fractured.

For BD professionals and the scaleup CEOs they serve, this creates a specific strategic mandate. The BD function is not simply responsible for generating revenue. It is responsible for earning and maintaining the reputation that enables revenue generation.

Trust is not a tactic. It is not a campaign. It is the cumulative result of how you have conducted yourself over the years in every conversation, every introduction, every commitment honoured, and every relationship maintained. In 2026, it is also the most durable competitive advantage available to any BD professional operating in global markets.

Human to Human: The Truth Technology Cannot Change

Underneath every argument in this article is confirmed in every market I have worked in: businesses are built on relationships; human to human. We live in a moment when AI dominates social media and much of the digital environment feels cold; automated, transactional, optimised for volume rather than connection. And yet buyers are responding by trusting less, not more. The answer to a trust deficit is not a better algorithm. It is a real person, with a real reputation, showing up with genuine credibility in the right rooms. That has always been the work. In 2026, it matters more than ever.

Next week I’ll be publishing “From Founder-Led to Function-Led; Transitioning BD without losing the edge”, the fourth article in this series. If you found this helpful, follow me on LinkedIn to catch it when it drops or sign up to FD Global Academy to review all of our articles, programs and webinars.

About the Author

Trena Blair is a global business strategist and US market entry specialist with nearly 15 years of experience advising business leaders on scaling internationally. Over that time, she has built a deep and sustained professional network in the United States and across global markets; relationships developed through consistent presence, genuine engagement, and the kind of long-term commitment to mutual value that transforms contacts into trusted colleagues.

That network  comprising advisors, investors, industry leaders, and strategic partners across US sectors and global markets, is the foundation from which Trena works with scaleup CEOs and their BD teams to build the credibility, relationships, and market presence that sustainable international growth requires.

Contact Trena for KeyNote Speaking Opportunities. 

Purchase Trena’s internationally awarded book: Decoding Global Growth: How Successful Companies Scale Globally 

Schedule a Complimentary 30-minute chat: https://calendly.com/trena-blair/complimentary-chat

Sources

Edelman — 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: Annual Global Study (January 2025, 33,000+ respondents, 28 countries)
Edelman — 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust, From We to Me (June 2025)
Forrester — Predictions 2026: Trust Will Be The Ultimate Currency For B2B Buyers
Forrester — Predictions 2026: Trust Gets Tested For B2B Marketing, Sales, and Product Leaders
Forrester — Closing the B2B Trust Gap (Forrester Research)
INFUSE — Outlook 2026: The Trust Crisis Reshaping B2B Buying Experiences (January 2026, 2,300+ GTM leaders)
Salestech Star — Beyond Cold Outreach: How Trust Is Becoming a Scalable Growth Channel (January 2026)
PR.co — PR Predictions for 2026: Why Trust Will Matter More Than Volume (January 2026)
Sterling Networks — Best Strategies for Building Your Professional Network (2025)
American Express Business Insights — 7 Ways to Build a Strong Professional Network
Harvard Business School Online — 6 Simple Networking Tips to Support Your Career Growth (March 2026)
Refonte Learning — Business Development in 2026: Trends, Skills, and Strategies for Growth (January 2026)
Institute of Directors (IoD) — Business Explainer: The Trust Barometer (June 2025