Be a Trusted Advisor not a Sales Person
Bob Hayward delivers this thought provoking seminar which will introduce you to the Trusted Advisor Approach, a concept that can dramatically increase your customer satisfaction and generate more business opportunities for your teams to pursue.
The Trusted Advisor Approach
This creates the environment for greater success within your key accounts. Bob is a Director of two business development companies OPC (UK) Ltd and Timepower Ltd, both of which he started from scratch. He has contributed to the success of many businesses and has helped make them profitable while a number of Blue Chips, including BMW (UK) Ltd, Diagonal Consulting and LogicaCMG, are also grateful for his expertise.
Why is a new approach necessary?
The economic collapse of the early part of this millennium affected organisations in two key ways.
- It broke the trust between business to business operators in so many ways making senior managers more cautious and less willing to trust people, processes, systems and organisations. Business leaders and sales people now have to conduct themselves differently as prospective clients inspect their every move with a microscope. Earning the trust of our customers, while more difficult now, will be the most essential ingredient in the mix if businesses want to grow and prosper. Yet few organisations make building relationships with customers a top strategic priority for the WHOLE organisation. Rather the delegate it, as a tactic, to the area of their business with the highest employee turnover ~ the sales force.
- It forced nearly every organisation to look carefully at the costs right across each supply chain. Many of us have felt the pressure to do more and more with less and less. The cost of acquiring new business was already high and became more so as the lack of trust led to more cautious buying processes. Many organisations in response to this have reduced the size of their sales force by separating the role of winning business from new clients from the role of winning additional business from current clients. Some have even gone further by reducing the number of Account Managers in favour of Service Delivery or Customer Service people absorbing the Account development function.
What is different about the Trusted Advisor Approach?
The Trusted Advisor is a client centred, solution orientated approach for all businesses that puts building high trust relationships where they belong ~ in the hands of every person the interacts with your customers. The Trusted Advisor combines Project Management and Consulting Skills in a unique client centred approach that is NOT in anyway a sales process by another name. What is the problem with selling?
Nearly every sales model is built on the same fundamental architecture;
Step 1 = Empathy building
Step 2 = Effective questioning + Good listening
Step 3 = Needs analysis
Step 4 = Benefit presentation
Step 5 = Handling of objections or concerns.
The result is that client meetings that could be used to build relationships and trust default to Need ~ Benefit + Cost / Concern ~ Justification contests between the sales person and the customer.
Manipulation doesn't build trust
Such manipulation is contrary to the building of trust. Trust makes it unnecessary to examine motives, to look for hidden meanings, to have it in writing and to double check the price against the market. Trusted Advisors work in ways that are 180 degrees from the traditional sales models, only authentic client centred behaviour over time leads to higher trust, higher leverage and higher client commitment.
The Trusted Advisor Approach
Enables Company Directors, Programme Directors, Project Managers, Service Delivery, Implementation or Customer Service Teams to Create a strategic and structured client relationship approach throughout the business. Buy into the appropriate responsibility and accountability that everyone in the organisation needs to take.
Develop a client centred approach that is about creating value and trust in client meetings.
Build a more robust inception phase into the current project management process.
Learn authentic Consulting Skills that build trust, collaborative relationships and long term sustainable business with clients.
