Becoming a Trusted Advisor

Being your clients go to guy or gal should be the goal of every sales person. It makes selling so much easier and more enjoyable as well.

Jim Klein
http://www.fromtheheartsalestraining.com

So True, Ian. Until that trust is developed (or “earned your spurs” as you say), most everything falls on deaf ears. When a trusting relationship has developed between customer and salesperson, the customer has confidence that the salesperson is watching his back, and that’s a valuable position to be in. I made the mistake once of trying to coach one of my clients too early in the process. It was the wrong thing to do and I learned from it.

Trusted Advisor seems to be the buzz word in all kinds of sales today. Not only that but it also appears to be in most of the marketing and sales material that companies put in front of prospects. So with so much emphasis and with much discussion around ‘how to’ then how come there is so much ‘why aren’t we’?
My guess is that the following are the root causes:
Becoming a trusted advisor is as much a culture issue as it is a marketing strategy. If you have sales people or account executives on staff that have been in the business for more than 10 years then you have a culture issue as well as a training issue.
Trusted advisors are typically confinded to the areas of ‘professional services’ i.e. legal, accounting, engineering and sometimes banking. If you interviewed most consumers you wouldn’t find them describing sales people as ‘trusted advisors’
Sales people don’t get paid for providing information. Actually when a sales person provides information to a prospect chances are the incumbent provider gets paid.
Lastly those companies that have attempted the trusted advisor approach have failed to drive revenue. The sales people became accountable to sales calls instead of sales results.
I agree that for long term mutually beneficial results then the ‘trusted advisor’ is the ultimate relationship. But companies need to do more than just talk about it and put it in their marketing material.

I have to say trusted adviser status is something that can be achieved even in transactional retail sales, but it has to be ingrained in the corporate culture.
I’ll use Joe’s Sporting Goods as a example. I go there for almost everything because I trust the professional opinion of the staff. frequently go there just to ask questions before fishing a new lake or buying new equipment because the customer service is excellent, and the information the give is accurate. I pay a bit more that I would at a Big 5 or other chain, but I’m willing to pay it for the additional service I get. I think the same can be said of chains like the Apple Store and Starbucks. A sale could not get much more transactional than Starbucks, but the staff there is knowledgeable, and offers great advice. if you want proof go in to a store and pretend you have no idea what you are doing.
The trick is all three of these companies have that ethic ingrained into the soul of their corporate philosophy.

Thoughts?

-Brad

Research shows that even a customer who is perfectly satisfied with your company, your products, and your salespeople will nevertheless leave you for a competitor who offers a more attractive deal. That thought should disturb your sleep, because most salespeople, even good ones, do no more than satisfy their clients.

Satisfaction isn’t enough. A genuinely loyal customer is one who values something about your company so highly that he or she stops shopping for better deals. If you have any customers like that, the overwhelming likelihood is that the thing they treasure so highly is the relationship that has been developed.

‘Loyalty’ implies a relationship. Who must build it? The salesperson.

How can salespeople become so valuable that their clients turn a deaf ear to competitors? Action Selling identifies three roles that every successful salesperson must play.

Orchestrator: This role has to do with leveraging resources and coordinating selling activities in ways that demonstrate how the salesperson’s relationships and his or her company’s resources can provide valuable solutions to the customer. For instance, the salesperson might bring in a technical expert to help a client think through a problem.

Consultant: Like a doctor diagnosing an illness, the salesperson asks questions that effectively uncover the client’s most important problems. Then the salesperson recommends solutions specifically targeted to those concerns.

Relationship Builder: The consultant role is essentially reactive. As a relationship builder, the salesperson moves beyond “asking where it hurts.” The salesperson takes an active interest in helping the client’s company improve its competitiveness, becoming a trusted “advisor” and valued partner in the client’s business. In the relationship-builder role, the salesperson serves a universal need that does not go away – the client’s need to keep getting better at what they do.

Another term for relationship builder is loyalty builder. Relatively few are able to shine in this most advanced role without additional guidance and practice. Those who do, become black-belts – masters of loyalty. To their clients and to their own employers – such masters are worth their weight-in-gold.

Look us up if you want help with this.

To Your Success.

Ian-
Nice post. I fear that the “trusted advisor” has become a catch phrase like thought leader or solution and is rapidly losing it’s real meaning. The trusted advisor model is well suited to only a segment of the professional services world. A competent professional would be welcomed by many potential clients. Thanks again…lwf