You have to believe you are a peer . You have to believe you belong in your top client ’ s corner office . You must possess a strong sense of your own value and your ability to help your clients improve and grow their business . That deep belief in yourself and what you have to offer will by itself go very far towards creating the peer relationship you desire .
RAINMAKERS
How To Build Peer Relationship With Your Clients
By Dr . Clifford Ferguson
To become a client ’ s trusted advisor , you must be viewed as a peer . This doesn ’ t mean you must become a literal peer . If you work with a CEO , for example , you will never be their strict peer in an organizational or hierarchical sense . But if you want a seat at the table with them , they need to consider you as a peer in three areas : Professional acumen , behaviour , and values . Let ’ s look at what these are and how you demonstrate them .
Building Peer Relationships
# Professional Acumen
Acumen is , literally , “ the ability to make good judgments and take quick decisions .” Clients want a peer who can partner with them to solve their toughest problems , capture opportunities , and achieve their goals . More broadly , I would define professional acumen as a valuable combination of five qualities :
Experience : Your client needs reassurance that you ’ ve addressed this same issue many times before , most likely in their specific industry and / or function . Or , that you have other , related experience that will provide a new and different perspective .
Can you frame your experience in a compelling and relevant way ?
Expertise : Most of your clients are going to have expertise in your same specialty . In some cases they may know less than you , in others they may be equally or more expert .
Do you focus on your expertise and methodologies too early in your client conversations ? Can you show , at the right moment , how it applies to your client ’ s most critical issues ?
Knowledge Breadth : Senior executives in particular will look for a peer advisor who has in-depth expertise and knowledge breadth . They want someone who understands the interrelationships between different parts of their business - someone who has an enterprise-wide perspective .
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You have to believe you are a peer . You have to believe you belong in your top client ’ s corner office . You must possess a strong sense of your own value and your ability to help your clients improve and grow their business . That deep belief in yourself and what you have to offer will by itself go very far towards creating the peer relationship you desire .
In addition to talking about the specific , presenting problem that your client has , are you able to have broad-based conversations with them about their business issues ?
Judgment : Clients face more strategic and operational choices now than ever before . You establish yourself as a peer when you demonstrate your ability to discern between different courses of action and to help your client make tough decisions . Commodity experts and advisors make judgments differently . Experts combine facts and experience to make a decision . Advisors combine facts , experience , and a deep understanding of their client ’ s values , beliefs , and organizational capabilities as they recommend decisions .
Insight : Insight means having a strong sense of perception . That is , seeing issues clearly and being able to separate the wheat from the chaff . Insight leads to idea generation and innovation , which are treasured by clients .
Are you learning enough about your client ’ s actual business to be able to make incisive observations about potential improvements ? Are you working hard to see knowledge connections and possible analogies from related fields ?
All five of these qualities add up to the intellectual strength - the professional acumen - that senior clients look for in a peer relationship with an outside advisor or service provider .
# C-Suite Behaviour
A top CEO head-hunter told me once about a candidate for a senior job that he had all but turned down just by spying him in the reception area of his London
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