Is the term trusted advisor and strategic partner the same thing or do they have two different meanings? Not only that, which does your organisation aspire to and how do you refer to your yourselves?
To understand where organisations sit, we need to look at our customers and their requirements and needs. Partners and end users no longer want Cortech to solve just the one problem they encounter; they expect us to evolve with them and provide that bigger commitment to address business wide problems. Customers no longer want to just buy a product; they instead want to invest in a solution as much as they want to invest in the business.
Both the status of trusted advisor and strategic partner are dependent in part on experience, character, commitment, knowledge, and chemistry between the two organisations. They both take investment in terms of time to develop, the status does not just happen overnight. You must be willing to earn your partners trust, share best practices, create real added value for your customers in the partnership and most of all remove your business from being seen as just a transactional relationship.
Being either a trusted advisor or strategic partner brings a host of potential benefits and the impact to your customers are clear.
- Access to knowledge: Mitigating risk and reducing potential mistakes
- Access to people: Drawing on a wider pool of technical expertise, experience and skills
- Effectiveness: Creating more appropriate products and services
- Efficiency: Reducing costs and delivery systems while avoiding duplication
- Innovation: Developing new ways of addressing complex challenges
- Reputation and credibility: Achieving immediate organisational reputation and greater credibility.
Either way a trusted advisor or strategic partner is more than just an account manager, you are allied with your customers’ needs and can advise on best practices not just for now but also in the future. You are there throughout the whole sales process, both pre- and post-sale.
Regardless of whether we are selling goods, services, or integrated solutions, in any industry we all have partners who we want to have good relationship with. From our point of view a trusted advisor or strategic partner is much more than having a good relationship with you, we are an integral part of your team and organisation.
In conclusion, here at Cortech we firmly believe that both terms, trusted advisor and strategic partner should have the same values and importance. In essence, they are the same thing so no matter what the goal is, all parties should work together to get the best possible results and create success for now and in the future.
Find out more about Cortech Developments on their member profile page here
Member-created content 10 months ago | From members