How do you demonstrate your credibility and expertise as a trusted advisor to the customer?

This includes knowing and understanding their vocabulary. Not every market talks about their products using the same words. You immediately show your understanding when you speak the way they do.

As a trusted advisor, I show my credibility and expertise by truly understanding the customer's needs. I listen carefully, ask meaningful questions, and empathize with their challenges. Then, I offer personalized solutions based on my in-depth product knowledge and real world experience. I share stories of past successes and happy customers to illustrate how my solutions work in practice. I'm always learning and keeping up with industry trends to provide the best advice. Building genuine relationships, being honest, and delivering tangible results are key to earning and maintaining trust with customers.

I agree with the comments thus far. Very good insight. My additions: 1) Identify how the customer makes money. How does your product or service enable or enhance the customers profits or productivity? 2) Be a good listener. Salespeople (including solution sales experts) often develop such an effective sales message that we can favor delivering the message over establishing the personal connection with the customer that is the real key to closing the business. My personal gauge on how well I am doing during a customer engagement is how willing the customer(s) are to share their story.

The larger and more complex the sale cycle, the higher the value of knowing your customer as described here. We're a relatively small add-on to another vendor's platform and are positioned in their marketplace. The smaller and shorter the sales cycle, the more you can focus on some vertical language and material based on your existing customer base and experience. Customer's like hearing about themselves, and a good second best to that is hearing about their industry and pain points in their language.

Whilst I agree that in Presales, you should have a good understanding of the product. However, you're never going to know everything inside out (especially if you're looking after a large product stack). Bringing in Presales SMEs, Product Managers, Peers or Industry Advisors can be great to supplement your customer engagements, develop your skills and learn more about the product. Ultimately, it will enable you to better sell the value of the solution in the long term as well as build credibility with your customers. In my experience, I have built more trust with clients when I have admitted a weakness in my knowledge, but have proactively sought to answers for them.

One of the best ways to build credibility with your customer is admitting something that you don't know, or admitting that part of your product won't directly meet their use-case. This is about re-positioning your product, but also building trust with your client. Your product isn't their silver bullet, it's part of a broader ecosystem for their environment, and admitting that builds trust instantly.

Become a Product Master: This goes beyond memorizing features. Understand the product's strengths, limitations, and how it compares to competitors. Stay updated on new features, updates, and industry trends.

This is where pre-sales and post-sales are connected. With the post-sales experience on product, more details on how to implement the solution and what value the solution will bring can be provided when customer has such concerns.

I always recommend that my team spend time preparing their introductions; they should mention their roles and what they will bring to the discussions and highlight their experience either within the company or in past companies that are relevant to their audience. We have to show that we know our topic.

While preparing for any pitch we pre-empt the solution image we are creating. This image plays a pivotal role in both the selling and buying processes. From a selling perspective, the salesperson needs to effectively convey the solution's benefits and unique value proposition. From a buying perspective, the solution image aids the customer in understanding the tangible benefits of the solution. It helps them see the end result and how it aligns with their goals. A clear and vivid solution image bridges the gap between what they need and how your solution fulfills those needs. Both processes are interdependent and revolve around effectively conveying and perceiving the Value! A win-win sale is not possible without matching these.

There are two aspects here: - Know your products/services value for the customer - Know your own personal value. For the latter point, your personal value is the industry expertise you have aroudn your solution. You interact with multiple customers and discussing how others have implemented, or other similar use-cases you've seen are key to representing yourself as a trusted advisor.

Know Your Value: First and foremost, understand the unique value you bring to the table. What sets you apart from competitors? Do you have specialized knowledge or experience in the customer's industry? Research the Customer: Before any interaction, research the customer's business, challenges, and goals. This demonstrates your genuine interest and allows you to tailor your approach.

A trusted advisor and his supervisor has to know his value and that's why it is important, that his or her team leader must give them the freedom to focus, develop and exchange ideas.

Much your credibility comes from the questions that you ask. Customers like to talk about their business and be heard. They also appreciate (and can tell) when someone is asking questions because they have a genuine desire to find the best path forward.

Once you've build rapport, your communication style needs to be two things: - Consultative with open-ended questions; very much representing that you're down in the trenches with your client. - Provide an opinion. Not agressively; that your product is the best, but provide a market opinion on the trends that you're seeing and then slowly round that back to why your solution is likely a better fit for your customer. Customers don't just want a product demo, or qualification, they want to learn from each interaction. What are you providing them?

Customer's appreciate the authenticity knowing that everything we discuss is available today because we only sell "what's on the truck." In other words, we don't position or sell our road map. Period. Selling what you have (and what works) is the easiest way to establish customer fit and sets you up for a great relationship as a trusted advisor.

Always be using the customer's language. I did so once, even though it meant risking being construed as another industry term of the same name. I just qualified what I meant by each term and used the new language from there on out. It helps enormously in keeping your messaging relevant particularly in engagements with multiple stakeholders dipping in and out of the buying process.

Certainly, communication is of utmost importance in pre-sales endeavors. Potential clients have an equally important role to play and should try by all means to share as much information as possible concerning their pain points, aspirations and desires when it comes to resolving their product or service needs. Shared information ie via email can be helpful, as parties tend to overlook certain key aspects, if communication is carried out by phone. Is it easier to recall a particular phone call? What did you miss or leave out in your communication? How best can you improve on capturing all elements of a clients needs, via a telephone conversation, for example?

Is modern sales a solo act, or a symphony of collaboration? In today's dynamic landscape, success hinges on embracing the latter. Recognize that just as modern buyers rarely make decisions alone, sales thrive when it's a team sport. By recognizing and valuing each member's expertise, a powerful synergy emerges, elevating customer interactions. Importantly, collaboration magnifies customer-centricity. When we interact with clients we simply debrief against everyone's role! It brings in immense focus to do better every time! I simply believe, that in today's collaborative sales arena, the question isn't whether to team up, but rather 'how well can you harmonize strengths for remarkable customer experiences?'

Leverage Client Success Stories: Share case studies or testimonials from satisfied customers in similar situations. This demonstrates your experience and the positive impact you've had on others. Showcase Collaborative Achievements: Highlight successful projects where collaboration with clients led to exceptional results. This emphasizes your ability to work together and achieve goals. Teamwork with Colleagues: If appropriate, involve relevant colleagues with specific expertise during presentations or meetings. This showcases your ability to collaborate internally and bring the best resources to the table.

Something I have noticed. New sales engineers often give very long answers to questions. I think in part because they are thinking and trying to be thorough. The more experience a sales engineer has, the shorter the answers get. They have learned to just answer the question with enough detail required by the audience. They know the audience will ask more questions if they really want to know more.

Embrace Continuous Learning: Let the customer know you're always striving to improve your knowledge and expertise. Briefly mention areas you're actively learning about that could further benefit them in the future. Welcome Feedback: Emphasize that you value their feedback and see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. This fosters a two-way communication where you continuously improve based on client interactions. Offer Additional Resources: Provide access to relevant white papers, industry reports, or other resources that demonstrate your commitment to their success, even beyond the immediate sale.

Be open and transparent. No one wants to meet the stereotypical used car salesman. No matter how good your product or service is, it will not solve world hunger. Talk about the limitations of your product on top of the strengths. This would help in gaining credibility and trust with the customer. You may not win a customer because that limitation may be a deal break but you will earn lifelong credibility.

Just listen first. I try to make the first meeting all about learning from the customer, then the second meeting is our response to what we've understood. Fortunately I don't work for a vendor so I can be flexible with how I can help and the value I believe I bring is understanding the problems and mapping them to something which can help. It also provides insight which I can then use in future scenarios.

A consideration is that your product, solution or services may not be the appropriate fit for your client partner. While it may seem counterintuitive to express this information… you cannot be a trusted advisor if you are not providing truthful information and advising the best way to solve for the challenge. Your client partner will respect you for your honesty, and your sales growth with your client partner will be significant in other areas because the client will absolutely see that you are a true partner. It’s not about the single sale.. it’s about a lifetime partnership.

Often I have seen if we receive positive engagement from Customer, we try to over-sell thus potentially creating additional risk to the sale. It is always good to know Customer’s long term and short term goals and strategize accordingly. Confidence and trust built after helping Customer achieve their short term goals - is the foundation of a long-term, sustainable and valued partnership!

As a trusted advisor, it’s helpful to share the past success stories and experience. Through the case studies on similar projects, it will be easier for the potential customers to understand the value of the solution and how to implement the solution in their environment.