Finding a Trusted Advisor

I received a number of emails in regards to my last blog where I discussed finding a trusted advisor. All the comments were very similar, “how do I find this trusted advisor”. In this blog post I will try to give you a few tips on how to find your advisor.

When you look for someone to help navigate the technology landscape, it is important to search for a person who has the following traits:

• Understands technology, but also understands the value it brings business.
• Strives to understand your business and the problems driving you to look for technology solutions before they ever discuss any products.
• Someone who understands your industry, what drives it forward and what hinders it from going forward.
• Someone who has knowledge of the wide range of solutions available in the marketplace.
• Someone who will take the time to educate you.
• Someone who is more interested in a long term partnership than making a sale and running off to the next one, never to be heard again. In most cases with technology, there are several steps before your vision is realized. Sometimes it means going down one path and then changing directions. This is when it is critical to have a trusted advisor.

Now that you know what to look for, where do you find your advisor?

• The best place to find anything in my opinion is through the people we already know and trust. They can discuss past experiences and give you the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• After exhausting your network, the best place to find a potential trusted advisor is in a scenario where they are not trying to directly sell you something. You want to observe them using the traits I have listed above, but in a setting that is not specifically aimed at you. This could be an industry event where they are speaking, it could be through an article, paper, etc that they wrote, it could be though social media posts or any other platform where they are discussing your industry problems and how to solve them. By attending your industry events or reading industry materials, you should be able to dig up potential candidates that would be worth talking to.

If you are an executive, your concentration is on the bottom line. Increasing revenue and profits year after year is why you are there. I believe without a doubt that technology should be a part of your strategy. The issue is that there are countless products and solutions in the marketplace and salespeople who will tell you anything you want to hear to make the sale. Your trusted advisor will help guide you through available solutions and be there long after the initial sale. This person can be already on your IT or business staff or maybe it is an outside vendor or consultant. Take the time to find the right person and your revenue, profits, and employees will thank you afterwards.

Photo from Shivf1 on Flickr