Passitto Blog
Becoming the Trusted Advisor: How Helping Others Helps You
We all like to do business with other professionals who go above and beyond the call of duty. This is especially true if the other business professional is, or seemingly is, willing to put the client's interests above their own. What these individuals have is the client's trust. Even if we do not cognitively recognize them as such, these individuals are our trusted advisors. Not only do we seek these individuals out, when they speak, we listen and we act upon their advice. This begs the question: are you your clients' trusted advisor? The answer to this question might surprise you.
One way to consider this question is to think about whether you regularly provide advice or help clients with issues that are outside the scope of your business? By "advice," I am not referring to providing clients with advice on topics which you are not qualified to speak. I am referring to helping clients find information or other professionals who are qualified to provide advice on the client's other business needs and following through to ensure that the client's needs are met.
Here is an example: Assume you are an estate planning attorney. Are you an attorney who is so technically proficient in estate planning that clients have to bring their accountants, insurance agents, and financial planners to meetings with you to help them understand what you are talking about? Or are you the attorney who takes the time to help the client understand how your advice fits with what the client's accountants, insurance agents, and financial planners are doing; who then meets with these other professionals to implement your advice; and who provides insights into the services provided by the other professionals?
The first type of attorney will often find that his clients often ignore his brilliant advice - opting to listen to their accountants, insurance agents, or financial planners. Worse yet, this type of attorney often does not understand why their clients fail to follow their advice. This can be frustrating for the attorney, especially when their clients' choices are obviously in error. These attorneys often do not realize that they are not the client's trusted advisor and that their advice has been supplanted by the advice provided by the client's trusted advisor.
The second type of attorney is the client's trusted advisor. In most cases, this attorney's clients will follow his advice even if it directly conflicts with the advice provided by the client's accountants, insurance agents, and financial planners and even if the client has a long standing relationship with these other professionals.
I give this example because, in contemporary American society, attorneys hold a special status in business transactions. They earn this right by having higher levels of education, and licensing requirements, and ethical obligations than most other business professionals. This example goes to show the all too common situation where even the special status accorded to attorneys is overcome by another person who exhibits - in a word - empathy for the client's needs.
The best way to exhibit empathy for client needs is to help clients find other professionals, to screen those professionals, and then to follow through with those professionals to see to it that the client needs are being met. Those of us who are able to do this will find that they are their clients' trusted advisors and, as a consequence, clients will begin to actively seek them out. While it sounds simple, actively working to become a trusted advisor can go a long way in making a business successful and it can prove to be a very effective business networking strategy.
Luckily, Passitto was created to harness the efficiencies created by the Internet to help make this process much easier for professionals. You can find out more about how Passitto can help you become a trusted advisor today by creating a free Passitto member account.
We all like to do business with other professionals who go above and beyond the call of duty. This is especially true if the other business professional is, or seemingly is, willing to put the client's interests above their own. What these individuals have is the client's trust. Even if we do not cognitively recognize them as such, these individuals are our trusted advisors. Not only do we seek these individuals out, when they speak, we listen and we act upon their advice. This begs the question: are you your clients' trusted advisor? The answer to this question might surprise you.
One way to consider this question is to think about whether you regularly provide advice or help clients with issues that are outside the scope of your business? By "advice," I am not referring to providing clients with advice on topics which you are not qualified to speak. I am referring to helping clients find information or other professionals who are qualified to provide advice on the client's other business needs and following through to ensure that the client's needs are met.
Here is an example: Assume you are an estate planning attorney. Are you an attorney who is so technically proficient in estate planning that clients have to bring their accountants, insurance agents, and financial planners to meetings with you to help them understand what you are talking about? Or are you the attorney who takes the time to help the client understand how your advice fits with what the client's accountants, insurance agents, and financial planners are doing; who then meets with these other professionals to implement your advice; and who provides insights into the services provided by the other professionals?
The first type of attorney will often find that his clients often ignore his brilliant advice - opting to listen to their accountants, insurance agents, or financial planners. Worse yet, this type of attorney often does not understand why their clients fail to follow their advice. This can be frustrating for the attorney, especially when their clients' choices are obviously in error. These attorneys often do not realize that they are not the client's trusted advisor and that their advice has been supplanted by the advice provided by the client's trusted advisor.
The second type of attorney is the client's trusted advisor. In most cases, this attorney's clients will follow his advice even if it directly conflicts with the advice provided by the client's accountants, insurance agents, and financial planners and even if the client has a long standing relationship with these other professionals.
I give this example because, in contemporary American society, attorneys hold a special status in business transactions. They earn this right by having higher levels of education, and licensing requirements, and ethical obligations than most other business professionals. This example goes to show the all too common situation where even the special status accorded to attorneys is overcome by another person who exhibits - in a word - empathy for the client's needs.
The best way to exhibit empathy for client needs is to help clients find other professionals, to screen those professionals, and then to follow through with those professionals to see to it that the client needs are being met. Those of us who are able to do this will find that they are their clients' trusted advisors and, as a consequence, clients will begin to actively seek them out. While it sounds simple, actively working to become a trusted advisor can go a long way in making a business successful and it can prove to be a very effective business networking strategy.
Luckily, Passitto was created to harness the efficiencies created by the Internet to help make this process much easier for professionals. You can find out more about how Passitto can help you become a trusted advisor today by creating a free Passitto member account.
Labels: advisor, business, client, networking, passitto, referrals, trusted
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Archives
Lijit Search
April 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 October 2008 November 2008 January 2009
Lijit Search