How To Become A Trusted Advisor

From the "Beyond Vendor" section on page 159 of The Referral Engine:

“Once you build a little trust with your customers, they often come to rely upon you for more than the scope of your products or services. ‘I know you're my accountant, but do you know a good estate attorney? My wife and I need to update our wills.’ 

Smart providers realize the power in this trust-building advice and actively work to build and develop a network of referable products and services. Some people who practice this strategy become so important a resource for their clients that their clients become virtually locked into the relationship.”

"We" vs "Me"

The Trusted Advisor strategy is all about the "win as a team" mindset.

You have to think about more than yourself for this strategy to work, which honestly means it will be a challenge for a lot of people because most people can't think about anyone's needs but their own.

For those who can think outside themselves and their individual needs, there is a huge opportunity to be a greater resource to your ideal client and to the people who can make your ideal client's life easier.

Being the bridge that connects your ideal client to those people is how you can graduate from being just a vendor to being a resource that is integral to the long-term success of your ideal client.

Vendors are used when they're needed and that's it.

But when someone determines that you are integral to their long-term success, they keep you around for their entire journey. They want you walking along side them in their small circle of trusted advisors who they call upon for advice on matters of all sorts.

Being in that small circle of trusted advisors positions you for all kinds of business opportunities that being just a vendor never would, as I explain in this video:

How Do You Build Your Team?

It takes about 5 people in a team like this to make it effective.

Start by identifying two or three businesses you could establish relationships with to make you more of a resource to your target audience. Schedule a call if you know them or do some outreach to establish those relationships. 

You should be communicating with your strategic partners on a regular basis. That means weekly interaction, not once in a while. These are not transactional relationships. You have to get to know these people well and be able to reach out to them at any time, which shouldn't be a problem because you're communicating regularly.

Think of this like the circle of friends you formed when you were in high school or college. This is the adult version of that. We formed relationships much easier as children because school put us together on a daily basis for hours at a time.

For people with jobs, their workplace can create those opportunities to form relationships.

As small business owners, we work independently. There is no workplace that pulls us together on a daily basis. So we have to actively work to build and maintain supportive relationships with other adults or we won't have them.

That's how running a small business ends up being such an isolating experience for so many people.

If all you focus on is yourself and your business, you will find yourself struggling alone.

Who Do You Know?

Who do you know who would make a great strategic marketing partner for you?

You may not know them by name, but you know them by industry.

Who else does your ideal client need as much as they need you?

Start reaching out to those people and find the ones you want to build relationships with.

It's going to take work. It's hard to make new friends as an adult, which is essentially what we're talking about here. To engage these people on a weekly basis and consistently do business with them, you're going to have to like them.

But building this team is well worth the effort. Everything will be easier once you're part of a small tribe of people who regularly open doors for each other.

You just have to shift your mindset to "we" instead of "me" in order to see and take advantage of all the opportunities that are out here for you.

Running a small business is a difficult, lonely journey only if you choose to make it that way. You don't have to go it alone.