Become your client’s trusted business advisor

Who do you trust these days? With economic uncertainty and the perils of rising unemployment numbers, knowing where to turn for the best business advice can be tricky. Naturally, you want to partner with those customers and suppliers who understand the value you can provide them, be it products, services, or both. However, if you currently think of yourself as a vendor, a business your customer turns to just for products, think again. In today’s relationship-centric culture, you need to up your game. Break through the crowd of the ordinary, those who simply live up to expectations, and stand out. Become a trusted business advisor.

If you look at those people you trust when it comes to your finances (although the list may be shrinking a bit these days), you’ll want to turn to a trusted financial advisor, someone who has the knowledge, experience, and judgment to give you the best advice possible. Yes, the financial advisor can take your money and offer you suggestions on where to invest it. He can process the investment for you. But the provider’s value goes beyond that. His advisor stays ahead of the financial curve, watching the markets every day, sometimes hourly or even minute by minute, so she can provide you with information to guide you in your next steps. He doesn’t just execute the transaction; he informs you of his options and then makes a recommendation based on his wisdom and insight. To stay ahead of his competition, he must do the same for his customers.

Now more than ever, your customers want the complete package. It is hoped that you will get the best products to meet your specific needs and solve your detailed problems. More than that, they want someone to put the solution to work and offer training and support to keep the products or services up to date. And then they want turnkey tools that allow them to sell it to their end user. And if you can help them with lead generation, you’ll score high on the trusted advisor scale.

So how do you do it? How do you create the complete package and then leverage yourself as that trusted business advisor? Clearly, much of your success will depend on following through. But here are some tips to keep in mind as you begin to position yourself in a new, brighter light for your clients:

– Know the current situation and objectives of their clients. Again, it’s about listening to your customer. Tune in to find out how they are surviving now and what tools they need to achieve their goals and objectives. Gather as much detailed information as you can as brain food to nurture your creative thinking.

– Identify the needs of your end users. It is important to remember what the end user is looking for. To be that trusted advisor, you need to have a solid reading of what your customers’ customers want and provide insights and recommendations to meet those needs. In doing so, you will provide excellent guidance and support as an advisor to your clients.

– Provide a thoughtful plan serving nuggets of the future. Your customers look to you to be their business wizard, to magically guide them in the right direction. If you can provide invaluable information over and over again that successfully guides them down the path to success, they will keep coming back. Create a step-by-step solution that addresses your needs while keeping current and future trends in mind. Then put the plan into action.

– Measure and track ROI. Time and time again, we develop solutions that look good on paper, but fail once implemented. If you are looking for a way to lose the trust of your customers, this is the solution. If you can’t measure the results back to the programs and initiatives you put in place, your customers won’t have proof of your success. If the tree falls in the forest with no one around, does it make a sound? If you can’t measure it, don’t do it. It’s that easy.

Your customers need strategic ways that show them the benefits of doing business with them, rather than choosing the competition. And they are looking for profitable and profitable ways to do it. Everyone needs a guide, and whether they realize it or not, your customers really want someone who can provide them with cost-effective solutions to implement in their day-to-day business operations. They need and want a trusted business advisor to show them the way. So stop typing orders and start creating solutions.