If you own your own business or consulting firm — or if you’re thinking of becoming an entrepreneur — you’ve got to think beyond your technical expertise to your relationship with your clients or customers.   Any good entrepreneur will tell you, you can be the best in your field, but if you can’t build relationships with the people who hire you, you won’t be in business for long.  Author David Maister wrote a book that I just love:  The Trusted Advisor.  He talks about the fact that as our relationships with our clients or customers deepen, we become more than an expert to them.  We become “a trusted advisor.”  Someone they look to for honesty, a sounding board, and sometimes plain old friendship.  Here are some coaching tips for how you can become a trusted advisor in your own business or even working for someone else:

1.  Be a better listener than talker.  Entrepreneurs fail all the time because they provide clients with services they think they need, but that don’t really solve a problem or fit the situation.  I recently “fired” my insurance agent because he kept trying to sell me products unrelated to what I told him I needed. 

2.  Be discrete.  This means you don’t talk about your clients or use their names without their permission.  I once overheard a cell phone call in the airport that was totally inappropriate.  It was a consulting firm that was working on the campaign of a famous senator.  By the time the call was over I knew all the tactics they were going to use in an upcoming election.  If the senator ever got wind of it I’m sure this company would have been fired.

3.  Be generous.  No one likes to think they’re being gouged.  Set a fair price on your product or services but know when it’s appropriate to throw in something extra or not bill for a ten minute telephone consultation.  In the long run it won’t make much difference to you but it will to your customers.

4.  Be someone others want to be around.  People don’t buy your product or services, they buy you.  There are plenty of people who can provide what you sell — why should anyone buy from you? 

5.  Be honest.  If you’re not the best person for a particular job, recommend someone else who is.  Remember the scene from Miracle on 34th Street where Santa Claus was sending shoppers to other stores?    It wound up getting his store even more customers because they appreciated his honesty.  Similarly, if your client or customer asks for something you think isn’t appropriate for the situation, say so rather than simply provide it in order to make the sale. 

TAGS: business owners, consulting, David Maister, entrepeneurs, small business, trusted advisor