Today’s business world is a tough environment. Executives have seen all the tricks in the sales playbook more than once. Nobody has all the answers. You need advice rivets manufacturer and guidance from a wide variety of people and resources in order to accomplish your goals. It really doesn’t matter which side of the table you’re on, because everyone benefits from a working, productive client–advisor relationship.
Getting to that level of relationship can be difficult. A productive client–advisor relationship requires trust, and trust in business today is in short supply. Executives are somewhere between suspicious and cynical of vendors; the concept of “trust-based selling” sounds like an oxymoron. Even in a long-standing customer–vendor relationship, the customer may perceive the vendor as having an axe to grind. The vendor has a vested interest in developing a sales transaction for their solution.
What is a Trusted Advisor?
We all aspire to be trusted advisors to others, and to have a network of trusted advisors whose expertise we can draw from. Becoming one requires three basic skills:
Earning trust
Effectively giving advice
Building relationships
“Master Mind” – meaning a mind that is developed through the harmonious co-operation of two or more people who ally themselves for the purpose of accomplishing any given task. Napoleon Hill – “The Law of Success: Lesson One ‘The Master Mind’”
The first stage in earning trust is by starting a working relationship in performing a specific task or service utilizing special skills or knowledge. This is the subject matter or process expert phase.
The second stage is when the client perceives that we have capabilities outside our original area of expertise. We are able to help solve more general problems requiring more than our technical knowledge to address. We are still fundamentally a subject matter expert (SME), but more valuable with broader knowledge of the client’s business to complement our SME knowledge.
The third stage of client–advisor relationship is when the advisor becomes a valued resource. We are asked to consult on broad strategy issues related to our specific expertise but not necessarily limited to our technical knowledge. We are perceived to put issues and problems into context and provide perspective. We begin to offer advice proactively and identify issues in their organizational context.
The trusted advisor is the apex of the client-advisor relationship. This is where the client discusses all types of issues facing them in their lives. This includes professional and personal issues open for discussion. The trusted advisor is the person the client turns to when an issue first arises, often in times of great urgency, a crisis, change, triumph or overcoming adversity.
The new way of doing business is through relationships. Building relationships requires an increasing level of trust as one moves through the four stages of a business relationship. What defines the difference between these relationships is the human dimension, the recognition of the interpersonal, individual aspects of the relationship – the integrity of the individuals involved. At all levels, though, trust is built upon caring for someone else. Someone else is relying on your integrity to help them solve problems.
In a mature trusted advisor relationship, the trusted advisor becomes a sounding board, a confessor, a mentor and sometime the jester/fool. The trusted advisor focuses on the needs of the client. The role sometimes blurs between the professional and the personal needs of the client.
“It’s important to have someone who you totally trust, who is totally committed, who shares your vision, and yet who has a little bit different set of skills and who also acts as something of a check on you. Some of the ideas you run by him, you know he’s going to say, wholesale nail equipment “Hey, wait a minute, have you thought about this and that?” The benefit of sparking off somebody who’s got that kind of brilliance is that it not only makes business more fun, but it really leads to a lot of success.” - Bill Gates, conversation with Warren Buffet
Characteristics of Relationship Levels
Focus Is On
Energy
Spent On
Client Receives
Indicators
of Success
Service-Based
Answers, facts, expertise, input
Explaining
Basic Information
Timely, high quality data
Needs-Based
Business problem
Tactical problem solving
Solutions
Problems resolved
Relationship-Based
Client organization
Providing insights
Ideas, approaches, improvement methods
Improved performance metrics; repeat business
Trust-
Based
Client as an individual, within an organization
Understanding the client’s entire world
Safe haven for hard issues
Steady business; client personal success; frequent contacts in areas external to relationship
Trusted Advisors in Business
Business leaders also look to hire the best person for leading functional areas of their companies. They look for individuals that have it ‘all’. The CEO of a company does not know everything about running a company – they look to lawyers, bankers, investors, board members for advice and guidance. The CFO looks to the accountant, CPA or audit firm for guidance. The executive responsible for technology looks for advice and guidance but what they find are sales people from vendors. They seek a source for true independent advice, one that has no solution to sell them except unbiased assistance.