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It’s a phrase you will be used to hearing, “You need to become the trusted advisor”, well what does it mean exactly?
As is usual in my blog posts, I’m not totally sure. And I’m not sure anyone else is, really, but I think we all understand what people are getting at when saying it.
Tell the truth to your clients.
Well, that’s a pretty low bar. I expect the staff in a restaurant to be a trusted advisor when telling me that the seabass is particularly good today, or my doctor telling me to take some antibiotics for an ailment.
In fact, I expect everyone I deal with to be a trusted advisor! Why would I deal with them if they were not?
So, is there more to it in the world of MSPs?
I’d say: maybe. Most MSPs work with small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) who are usually very good at what they do, but don’t have the inclination or time to understand the ins and outs of IT. This is why they work with your MSP. They trust you to offer high quality recommendations for things like:
- IT systems that work for them and enable them to access their systems securely from anywhere.
- IT security that is as seamless as possible for the SMB to keep them secure when using their systems without interfering with their workflow or becoming intrusive. This could be via security monitoring, patch management, endpoint protection, single sign-on, or even end user phishing simulations or cyber-awareness training.
- Great use of remote services and data insights so they don’t need to call you very often. When you are proactively monitoring for issues, you are ready to help and get them operational again when they do need to contact you.
- Regular patch updates and lifecycle planning for their IT systems. It’s never easy to deliver bad news to a client, but if the technology is going to cause problems and needs to be replaced, your client trusts you to have the honest conversation with them – regardless of how tricky it could be.
I think that is what being a Trusted Advisor really boils down to: being honest and radically candid with your clients. Under-promise and over-deliver. And if you’re compassionately honest, you don’t need to fear delivering bad news. And above all, always tell the truth.
Apply to be a partner today and see how we can help you become a Trusted Advisor.
