What if?
One of my favourite professional development writers, David Maister, asks his reader the not insignificant question: What benefits would you obtain if your clients trusted you more?
He then goes on to list the following benefits. The more your clients trust you, the more likely they'll be to:
- ask for your advice
- accept and act on your recommendations
- get you involved in more complex areas of planning
- respect you, and trust your judgements and instincts
- share confidential or sensitive information with you, which will help you to help them
- pay your bills without question
- refer you to friends and business acquaintances
- give you the benefit of the doubt and forgive you when you foul up (rather than immediately write to the FOS)
- warn you of dangers you might wish to avoid
In the present unsettling and challenging economic climate, for you and I to be that 'trusted adviser' is a really valuable thing. Unfortunately, often we assume that we are, whereas we have to work quite hard to attain that special status. If, for example, our function has historically been to arrange ad-hoc financial transactions for clients, then it is unlikely that they will perceive us as their 'trusted adviser'.
Do we want that kind of status? Do we perceive it as conferring valuable benefits for our business model? If yes, then perhaps its time to do something different.
Maister contends that trust must be both earned and deserved. How do we move our business from a transactional/information/process model to a 'trusted adviser' model?
- Be there - greater client contact provides a fertile ground for trust to grow in. You can achieve this via a combination of specific, helpful newsletters plus scheduled contact for reviews
- Illustrate what you do rather than just 'tell' the client - Gill Cardy in our recent Quarterly Conference restressed the value of case-studies
- Focus on listening to the client, and demonstrate that you have listened through the way you ask further questions, and the way you document your advice
- Treat each client as a unique individual, rather than regurgitate the same, templated advice to every similar situation (that is what the Banks do)
- Keeping asking the kinds of question which help you to understand your client, and which demonstrate that you are concerned and interested
- When the client asks a question that you cannot answer, be quick to admit the fact and refer the matter to someone who can help
- Show appreciation - your clients choose to deal with you
If you want to find out more about developing this kind of business model, you could do a lot worse than read David Maister's book, "The Trusted Adviser". |
