In many businesses, it is the people that matter. The personal relationship and trust that a long term relationship elevates a vendor into A Trusted Advisor.
Trusted advisors are more likely to have their advice taken, open new lines of communication, gain referrals and have more constructive and effective client interactions. LEAD WITH TRUST The most effective leaders don’t demand power-based or hierarchical obeisance, but instead influence others to take on the organization’s goals as their own.
Think of professional services. Would you be upset if a different consultant than the one you’ve worked with for months showed up one day, or are all consultants exactly the same? The particular person you work with trumps the brands they’re associated with.
A Trusted Advisor status with a client is a major differentiator. It moves the relationship from that of a transactional facilitator (fine, but average) to a trusted advisor (differentiated and valued).
How Important Is Being a Trusted Advisor?
Recent research revealed that 84% of customers who did not renew their annual contracts with an insurance company either had an antagonistic or transactional relationship with the provider.
Customers who had a transactional relationship with the representatives at an IT Value Added Reseller (VAR) gave the company on average 14% of their available business. This jumped to 47% where the buyer perceived the VAR’s salespeople to be a trusted advisor. That’s a 33% difference that can be attributed solely to relationship strength!
What Is a Trusted Advisor?
The six dimensions of a trusted advisor are generally developed in order — in other words, #1 is established before #6.
- Integrity. The prospect perceives you to be reliable, dependable, and trustworthy.
- Competency. The prospect believes that you and your product/service can deliver. Your company is perceived to have the tools, processes, and people in place to make good on promises.
- Recognition. The prospect feels that you treat them as an individual instead of a number.
- Proactivity. The prospect believes you are actively looking out for their best interest and that they aren’t going to encounter any unexpected surprises with your product/service.
- Savvy. The prospect feels that you understand the issues they care about.
- Chemistry. The prospect enjoys working with you and thinks your communication “clicks.”
But here’s the catch with these dimensions: They’re pillars, not behaviours.
How a CRM can help
A CRM system benefits an organisation through the visibility of its sales activities. This visibility is fundamental to managing sales performance and control of the sales process. This visibility enables management to understand why, when, who and how opportunities are being won, stalled, or being lost. If it cannot be monitored, it cannot be managed. The visibility offered within the CRM system also allows management to make educated business decisions based on hard data. A CRM system will enable structured data to be used to access performance. This assessment should indicate which sales person is out performing others.
ProAptivity are an independent CRM solutions provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software supported by our sales training provide customers with the tools needed to deliver successful sales process management.
Fundamentally, we help organisations embed CRM best practice throughout their organisation. This helps organisations become more competitive, customer focused and ultimately more profitable.
If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM or Pipedrive CRM for more information. Contact us today on 028 9099 6388 or via info@proaptivity.com. Contact us today for a free CRM consultation that will assess if your business is CRM ready.
