IT providers love to talk about the idea of the trusted advisor.\u00a0\u00a0 While there are many legends about the source of this moniker in IT, the one I tend to believe is that when Microsoft was building their SMB market and targeted small business consultants with a line of products devoted to the SMB, the design team believed that the product would be recommended and installed by what they described as a \u201ctrusted advisor\u201d rather than by an internal IT staff member.\u00a0\u00a0Much of this was based on the fact that it was believed that the organization wouldn\u2019t have an IT staff.\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting about the statement is that the design team never believed that the advisor would ever call themselves that, but instead would use their own branding to describe their services.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s then interesting that a term that was never intended for external use became the model for describing service delivery.\u00a0\u00a0 What is even more interesting is that the terminology is now becoming outdated and outmoded.<\/p>\n
The trusted advisor has two flaws in the name itself. First, trust is not something that can be sold. Instead, it must be earned.\u00a0 This is a bold and powerful statement and something that must be examined in the context of positioning.\u00a0 It is not enough to state one\u2019s position if the reality behind that statement is not true.<\/p>\n
Second, positioning as the advisor implies an external role, and doesn\u2019t show investment in the customer\u2019s business.\u00a0\u00a0 MSPs must increase the quality of their business consulting services in order to remain competitive as customers come to expect more value from their relationship with a provider beyond that of an external advisor. By developing these skills and paying attention to customers\u2019 key business drivers and goals, MSPs can develop stronger relationships with existing customers and make their own business more attractive for prospects. The relationship moves from an external one of advice to one of an internal CIO role as an extension of the company\u2019s own staff, not only managing tools and solutions, but also providing guidance on how to best align IT investments and projects with the organization\u2019s core business drivers.<\/p>\n
By offering business consulting services, MSPs can work with clients to identify their unique business goals and choose services and tools that will be necessary to achieve success. These services bring closer engagements, align MSP and solution provider goals, and ultimately benefit both.\u00a0 With forward planning happening with business and technology goals in alignment, the customer will see faster results, innovation integrated more quickly, and higher profits.<\/p>\n
This is a much stronger position for the solution provider to engage with. I believe that the statement around CIO is stronger, bolder, and clearer than Trusted Advisor, and thus I have been recommending it.\u00a0\u00a0 Because trust is earned and not sold, a promise to be the CIO \u2013 focusing on business outcomes, engaging at a C-level, and delivering higher value \u2013 is a genuine, simple position statement, and leads to greater success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IT providers love to talk about the idea of the trusted advisor.\u00a0\u00a0 While there are many legends about the source of this moniker in IT, the one I tend to believe is that when Microsoft was building their SMB market and targeted small business consultants with a line of products devoted to the SMB, the design team believed that the product would be recommended and installed by what they described as a \u201ctrusted advisor\u201d rather than by an internal IT staff member.\u00a0\u00a0Much of this was based on the fact that it was believed that the organization wouldn\u2019t have an IT staff.\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting about the statement is that the design team never believed that the advisor would ever call themselves that, but instead would use their own branding to describe their services. It\u2019s then interesting that a term that was never intended for external use became the model for describing service delivery.\u00a0\u00a0 What is even more interesting is that the terminology is now becoming outdated and outmoded. The trusted advisor has two flaws in the name itself. First, trust is not something that can be sold. Instead, it must be earned.\u00a0 This is a bold and powerful statement and something that must be examined in the context of positioning.\u00a0 It is not enough to state one\u2019s position if the reality behind that statement is not true. Second, positioning as the advisor implies an external role, and doesn\u2019t show investment in the customer\u2019s business.\u00a0\u00a0 MSPs must increase the quality of their business consulting services in order to remain competitive as customers come to expect more value from their relationship with a provider beyond that of an external advisor. By developing these skills and paying attention to customers\u2019 key business drivers and goals, MSPs can develop stronger relationships with existing customers and make their own business more attractive for prospects. The relationship moves from an external one of advice to one of an internal CIO role as an extension of the company\u2019s own staff, not only managing tools and solutions, but also providing guidance on how to best align IT investments and projects with the organization\u2019s core business drivers. By offering business consulting services, MSPs can work with clients to identify their unique business goals and choose services and tools that will be necessary to achieve success. These services bring closer engagements, align MSP and solution provider goals, and ultimately benefit both.\u00a0 With forward planning happening with business and technology goals in alignment, the customer will see faster results, innovation integrated more quickly, and higher profits. This is a much stronger position for the solution provider to engage with. I believe that the statement around CIO is stronger, bolder, and clearer than Trusted Advisor, and thus I have been recommending it.\u00a0\u00a0 Because trust is earned and not sold, a promise to be the CIO \u2013 focusing on business outcomes, engaging at a C-level, and delivering higher value \u2013 is a genuine, simple position statement, and leads to greater success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1649,1644],"tags":[1805,529,1806],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8254,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8191\/revisions\/8254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}