Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Becoming a Trusted Adviser

According to David Maister, we don’t begin our careers as trusted advisers, we usually begin performing a specific task or service by employing our technical skills. More times than not, this results in a vendor or contractor type relationship with clients. While clients trusts us, their trust is based on our ability to deliver technically accurate and professionally sound solutions to their problems.

But most of us aspire to a very different type of relationship with our clients. We aspire to move beyond just providing great technical work and become our client’s trusted adviser. We want to build customer loyalty and develop a partnership relationship with our clients. Unfortunately, however, many professionals do not ever reach this status. They get stuck because the client doesn’t let them in or the system in which they work doesn’t allow for this type of relationship.

So how does one develop this partnership relationship, even in a system that is not supportive of it? I’ve been fortunate to have developed this type of relationship with several clients. Here is what I’ve learned:

Relationships begin with trust. Trust is the essential ingredient for a sound business relationship. Although I subscribe to the philosophy of “trust first, then become trusted,” this is not the norm in most relationships. Most clients need proof in order to believe in or trust their consultant. Earning trust takes time but can be developed by following a few strategies: give first without expecting anything in return; develop the courage to say what you think; and stretch your risk tolerance.

Clients, just like you, can see when a vendor or consultant is just trying to make a sale or when he is trying to build a longer term relationship. I’ve found that offering advice or giving freely of information to help a potential client, without expecting anything in return, goes a long way toward establishing trust. Of course, this strategy doesn’t work every time and you will need to accept the fact that a client may use your information or advice without ever consulting you again. Although, this doesn’t feel right at first, the best “trusted adviser” relationships that I have built have started this way.

To build a trusted relationship, one needs to be able to candidly say what’s on one’s mind. Not many people trust the “yes man.” I remember years ago talking a potential client out of building a warehouse when he was convinced that he needed one. I just didn’t see the need for it and told him that I believed it was his procurement and storage policies that needed improvement instead. I explained that by building additional space, he would perpetuate poor practices that his organization had developed. This advice didn’t sit well with the client initially, but it did lead to the next conversation and eventually to one of my best and longest lasting business relationships. To do this – effectively turn down a project and interject my thoughts as how the client should run his business, I had to stretch my risk tolerance. The client could have easily have said good-bye to me and hired another firm to give him what he wanted. But he didn’t, and as of today my firm and his organization have worked together continuously for over 15 years.

Relationship building takes time and effort. Most young professionals think that relationships can be built over a lunch meeting, but in reality, they take months and sometimes even years to build. You cannot rush a real relationship. I had a young professional engineer come to see me on a cold call. I liked him and agreed to have lunch with him the following week. He spent the entire lunch hour telling me about his business and philosophy, which I appreciated hearing. At the end of the lunch, he asked for my business. I had to explain to him that a business relationship of trust and mutuality is not built in one fell swoop. We both needed time to become comfortable and he really didn’t know much about my firm’s business. To illustrate the point, I asked him if he would hire me today to assist on one of his projects. We agreed that we would meet again. The point is, don’t rush a relationship or it will be viewed as just another sales pitch.

Never act like a vendor. A vendor, by definition, is a person or company offering something for sale. Their prime motive is to “make the sale.” If you want to build a long-term “trusted adviser” relationship, you cannot act like a vendor. Don’t make the sale more important than the relationship.

Until next time…

Craig

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