Solution selling training / Onsite Program

SE (Systems Engineer) as Trusted Advisor

Helping customers make good, balanced decisions

Description:
The SE as Trusted Advisor workshop is based on an important business premise: Customers will be more receptive to technical advice and proposed solutions if Systems Engineers are successful at developing a trusting business relationship with those customers.

To build such “trusted advisor” customer relationships, SEs need to offer much more than just technical expertise.

SEs who are trusted advisors also demonstrate sophisticated interpersonal skills — skills that invite their customers to perceive them as people they can turn to for honest and competent advice on important business matters.

In practical terms, achieving the status of a "trusted advisor" requires and SE to:

1. Demonstrate an uncommon depth of business empathy and added value
2. Build exceptional interpersonal rapport
3. Express an extraordinary desire and ability to help the customer succeed in the broadest sense

Interactive Design
Each unit in the SE as Trusted Advisor workshop contains multiple interactive, learn-by-doing developmental activities designed to:

• Raise awareness of SE strengths and areas for continued development
• Provide SEs with increasingly complex practice opportunities
• Challenge the participants to apply new concepts and skills to important real-world customer relationships and internal relationships

Activities and tools include:

• Pre-work profile of key customer relationship(s)
• Written materials that provide concise definitions, summaries and examples of the trusted advisor skills and techniques
• Single-skill practice activities that isolate and strengthen specific new skills
• Multi-skill practices that bring it all together
• Videotaped, individual practice activities with professional feedback and in-the-moment expert coaching
• Group exercises that support the sharing of best practices
• Application exercises that link the workshop’s content to real-world, back-on-the-job performance

Outcomes:
The SE as Trusted Advisor workshop enables SEs to consciously and skillfully build more mutually rewarding business relationships with customers.  Specifically, after the workshop, SEs will be able to:

• Talk about their ideas and solutions in a customer-centric way that is clear, memorable and uniquely helpful to the customer
• Build rapport and demonstrate their ongoing concern for the customer
• Engage in healthy, constructive conversations with customers during good times and—even more important—during difficult times
• Identify actions they can take to enhance their personal positive impact
• Ask thought-provoking questions to collaborate with the customer to reach a deeper, mutual understanding of the situation
• Use the whiteboard interactively to demonstrate their personal credibility, engage the customer collaboratively in problem solving and clearly illustrate ideas and solutions

These new and strengthened skills can help SEs become even more valuable to their organization, to their sales partners and to their customers.
 

Target Audience:
Any SE who wants to become a trusted advisor and add more value to their customers.

To speak with an LSA Expert and learn about program customization and delivery options onsite at your company, please contact us.