3Min Read.

Trusted Advisor is of course not my real name, it is a nickname given to me by my customers. They say I have earned it. In the beginning, I was a little bit uncomfortable with the name. In particular the “Advisor’ part. All I tried to do was help my potential customers achieve what they were trying to achieve. Anyway, I am actually humble in nature, so that makes it extra challenging to talk about myself. But, I come prepared because the purpose of speaking to you, is that you have a better understanding of what a Trusted Advisor is, and the difference in comparison to the average salesperson you have dealt with. This may help you in the future …

A Trusted Advisor, first of all, helps businesses like yourself to grow and prosper. For that:

• I come prepared to meetings,  I have a general idea of what you do as a business and how you make money. I am up to speed on what possible business challenges you face in your industry.
• I understand you want to stay ahead of your competitors, the question is always what strategy will most likely achieve that? Trusted Advisors respect that you have a supply chain in place that works well for you. We do not come in with biased assumptions to sell you solutions. We listen and have more business-type conversations with you, rather than sales conversations.
• Our task is to work together, You have a good business and together, in light of the business challenges you face, we should wonder if good enough should not be great instead. Can things be done better? Yes, probably. But is changing suppliers worthwhile? What is the risk of not changing? And what are the opportunities gained by changing? These are the questions I would like to explore together with you.
• A Trusted Advisor needs to do two things. To be trusted and to advise. I gain your trust through demonstrating I am on your side. I have your business goals and challenges as my priorities, rather than following a biased sales process focused on uncovering needs and proposing solutions.

As I said, I am a bit uncomfortable with labeling what I do as “Advising”. But in the end, that is what I do. What I focus on is where your business challenges interconnect with what I know best. I share with you what I have done for other businesses like yourself. This, you may find helpful, because although there is no person to know your business like you do, you do not have the experience that I have gained through helping other businesses. And believe me, there is no business case the same, but many are similar.

As a Trusted Advisor,

• I do not jump to conclusions and start selling solutions. Instead, I share my experience of what I have done for other customers like yourself. Hopefully, you find the information I share with you insightful and you would like to get more people involved in the discussions.
• I talk to several of your colleagues in a similar way, with your permission of course. We may talk to them together. It is always good to hear several views and opinions about the challenges that you face as an organization. I put my business hat on and together we can work out what makes sense. Changing or not changing?

In case you are interested to further explore what a change would mean for you, I will help you by building a stronger business case. Weighing out the pros and cons. In the end, you make the decision as a team. To go through all the hassle of changing supplier, there needs to be a strong strategic advantage for your business. There needs to be a consensus on that.. 

In the case, you have decided to change, I will make sure we complete together all the requirements needed to make a change successful for you as a business. I will not leave you empty-handed with the implementation. I will be there for you and mobilize other of my colleagues to make the change as smooth as possible.

Now, how can I help? What initial questions do you have? How can I be helpful?

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