THE TRUSTED ADVISOR
by David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford
The book is a thoughtful analysis of how to grow relationships with clients such that you become more than just a technical specialist or service provider.
The authors explore how real trust is created, including by engaging with the client’s emotions. Then they offer 5 steps to grow trust, which seem sort-of obvious once they lay them out, but perhaps I’m not alone in not having considered it this clearly before:
#1 Engage - help the client see that there’s an issue worth talking about and that you’re someone worth talking about it to
#2 Listening- active, incisive, conscious, involved, interactive
#3 Framing - working with the client to formulate a clear problem statement. I know from years of coaching how useful people find it to have an outsider help them identify what’s really at issue
#4 Envision - fully explore where they’re trying to get to, without getting bogged down in how to get there
#5 Commitment. So often clients know what needs to be done but need help getting fully committed to taking action and persevering
There’s a reassuring integrity running throughout, so that it absolutely does not read like a manual for how to manipulate clients for personal gain. Rather it subscribes to the philosophy that if you offer genuine service, rewards will come.