When I started selling decades ago, we were told that we wanted to be the trusted advisor or partner of our customer. To this day, I still hear people saying that. However, it’s an outdated cliché.
Customers don’t want trusted advisors. They don’t want partners. Those presuppose that you’re on the outside. What they’re really looking for and who they’re really rewarding with business and loyalty are people who they consider objects of interest. That’s what I consider to be the next stage above being a trusted advisor. So, how do you accomplish this?
Become a Central Hub
Being an object of interest is about being a hub—being that go-to person that people come to for all sources of information around the decisions that they need to make. So, consistent value messaging weekly, bi-weekly, or three times a week—anything more than once a month—is critical.
It’s also important to create ubiquity across all platforms. Whether you like those platforms or not, it doesn’t matter. If your customers are there, you need to be there and sharing liberally and generously. When you share articles, the opinions of others, or success stories from your customers, you become that central hub.
When you consistently implement all of those strategies, people will increasingly elevate their opinion of you. And that’s when you graduate from being the trusted advisor into that invaluable object of interest.
[…] You must show your customer how much new business they’ll attract by being associated with a trusted brand. Also, understand why those leading brands keep choosing you. There are tangible reasons. And […]