One of the most talented advisors I've ever coached - let's call him Adrian - shared the story of how he came to be a trusted advisor for one of the clients that he's working with. In his own words, the client will usually simply give him the business and tell him to send them an invoice, because they know he deals fairly. That is the essence of a Trusted Advisor right there, and something that is lucrative mutually beneficial and value-creating...
One of the most common reasons I hear for why advisors didn't win the sale is because they were more expensive - or couldn't match - their competitor. There are two things to be aware of here - first and foremost, is the fact that this is usually what the client says, because they now it's the easiest one to get away with, and raises the least amount of objections - how can you argue with that right? The underlying issue though is something...
Regardless of your professional arena - whether you are in engineering, investment banking or a Big Four consultant looking to acquire high value targets - there are certain skills you can't live without. In my experience there are 3 skills in particular, which are important. Empathy The ability to build trust The patience to fully explore a client's situation Let's look at each of them in turn. When it comes to Empathy we all possess this...
As human beings our natural (and only) perspective is from the inside out — we perceive the world from our own point of view. This is the way things have always been, and it’s (most likely) never going to change. If we want to help others however — whether as advisors, leaders, parents or any other type of capacity in which we want to influence the behavior of other people, we have to start putting ourselves in the shoes of the other...
In the United States alone, almost 10 million people are employed in the professional services industry. What's more, the current total earnings in the industry has more than doubled over the last 10 years. The point here, is that the industry is on the rise, and more and more people are calling themselves advisors. Yet for all their know how and technical skill, only very few live up to the name - very few are able to guide their clients at...
Something that determines our success as advisors to a huge degree is the extent to which we're able to deal with other people - our social and emotional intelligence. Not only do we need to be able to inspire trust in others, but we also have to be easy to get along with, yet assertive enough so as to inspire confidence, that we know we're doing. Many of the advisors I coach have a hard time with this balancing act, and find that they sometimes...
Today, we're going to be discussing why some advisors make astronomical sums while other advisors are stuck competing for commoditize sales, where price is the only real differentiating factors and where what the're selling will be driven so far down as to in some cases not even cover costs. There are essentially 5 guiding principles that separates from a behavioral perspective, what the best do and what most do. Experience shows that most...
One of the main pitfalls I see advisors falling in time and time again (and which - truth be told I might also have fallen into once or twice) is the tendency to present our proposal with the solution at the center. Almost as if assuming that the client should care about the solution just for the solution's sake, as if we'd just descended from Mount Sinai with the 10 commandments (to be fair I would think even Moses might have similar issues if...
When it comes to doing business with others, one factor is more detrimental than anything else. Conversely, if we can change that one behavior, we are well on our way to becoming trusted advisors for our most cherished clients. Click the video below to learn more
In any conversation there are four phases we need to navigate. This post is the first in a series of posts that shows you how to navigate any conversation. First - let's talk about how to make a great first impression. In the opening phase, there are three things we want to accomplish, namely: Arouse interest Gain sympathy Set expectations and agree on goal of the meeting Let's look at each element in turn. The very first thing we want to in...
