Is a Trusted Advisor a hidden sales category?

In the first article in this series, I discussed why the customer is not necessarily always right, and why challenging the customer's assumptions can be part of good customer orientation. This leads to a natural question: When are we salespeople, and when are we advisors? And is there actually an overlooked sales profile that we should take much more seriously?

There are salespeople whom customers call when they need to buy something.

And then there are people whom customers contact when they do not yet know what to do.

I find that difference interesting.

The first is typically involved when the customer has defined a need and wants to evaluate a solution.

The second may become involved much earlier. Perhaps before there is even a project, a budget or a concrete purchasing decision.

The customer is not necessarily seeking a proposal.

The customer is seeking an informed perspective.

We often call the second person a Trusted Advisor.

But is that simply a nicer term for a skilled salesperson?

Or should we consider Trusted Advisor a distinct commercial category?

Trust is not the same as a good relationship

The term Trusted Advisor became particularly widespread through David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford's 2000 book The Trusted Advisor.

The authors described trust through a model that relates credibility, reliability and personal intimacy to the degree of self-orientation.

The model is a practical tool for reflection. It should not be regarded as a scientifically validated mathematical formula.

The last dimension is especially interesting: self-orientation.

How much of the conversation is about the customer's situation, and how much is about the salesperson's need to sell something?

That question deserves greater attention.

A person can be likeable, competent and good at building relationships without necessarily being perceived as a trusted advisor.

A Trusted Advisor is not simply someone the customer likes.

It is someone whose judgement the customer trusts.

Research supports the importance of trust

As early as 1997, Doney and Cannon studied how trust develops in relationships between industrial buyers, suppliers and salespeople.

Their research showed that trust in both the supplier and the salesperson mattered for expectations of future collaboration.

But the results also revealed an important nuance: When previous experience and supplier performance were taken into account, trust had no independent effect on the current supplier selection decision in their model.

This underlines that trust does not replace demonstrated value.

In LinkedIn and Ipsos' 2025 The Trust Advantage, 86% of the B2B buyers surveyed said that the salesperson's expertise helped build trust.

At the same time, only 45% described the salespeople they encountered as trustworthy.

That is an interesting gap between customers' expectations and the value sales organisations actually manage to demonstrate.

Is the advisor becoming more important in modern B2B?

I believe the trusted advisor role is becoming more relevant in certain forms of complex B2B sales.

Not because customers know less.

Quite the opposite.

Customers have access to far more information than before. They use digital channels, AI and external information sources to research the market themselves.

In Gartner's May 2026 survey, 69% of the B2B buyers surveyed preferred to validate AI-generated information with a salesperson.

There is a significant opportunity here.

As information becomes more accessible, human value may increasingly lie in interpreting it, understanding its consequences and helping the customer make a decision.

That requires more than product knowledge.

It requires insight into the customer's business, an understanding of decision processes and the ability to build trust across stakeholders.

Edelman and LinkedIn's 2025 B2B Thought Leadership study specifically highlights the importance of less visible decision influencers in complex purchases.

The trusted advisor therefore does not necessarily need only the trust of the customer's primary contact.

They must be able to contribute to a decision that several people can stand behind.

But when are you an advisor, and when are you a salesperson?

This is where the most interesting conflict lies.

A salesperson represents a company and has a commercial interest in winning business.

An advisor is expected to prioritise the quality of their recommendations.

Those two interests can often be reconciled.

But not always.

Imagine that a customer is considering a substantial investment in the company's solution.

After a thorough analysis, it becomes clear that the customer should first resolve some internal organisational problems.

The most relevant recommendation is therefore to postpone the investment.

What does the salesperson do?

Do they try to complete the deal anyway?

Or advise the customer to wait, even if it may cost an order?

It is in such situations that the real difference between appearing to be an advisor and actually behaving as one becomes clear.

Trust is not created solely by what we say to the customer. It is also influenced by which commercial opportunities we are willing to turn down.

This does not mean a commercial advisor must be independent in the same sense as an impartial third party.

But the salesperson's interests and limitations should be clear, so the customer can assess the recommendation on an informed basis.

A new category or a different way of selling?

When working with sales roles, it can be useful to distinguish between Hunters, Challengers, Relationship Builders and Process Sellers.

These describe behaviours and commercial strengths — not fixed personality types.

Where does Trusted Advisor fit in?

In my view, it is not necessarily a fifth category.

It is more a way of applying one's skills and building a particular position with the customer.

A Hunter can achieve that position by understanding a new market problem better than competitors.

A Challenger can achieve it by helping the customer see a significant challenge from a new perspective.

A Relationship Builder can achieve it through deep business understanding and sustained credibility.

And a Process Seller can achieve it by guiding the customer safely through a complex and risky decision.

This does not mean all salespeople should automatically call themselves Trusted Advisors.

The label only makes sense when the customer actually experiences the person that way.

The commercial leadership challenge

If a company wants more salespeople who can act as trusted advisors, it must also examine which skills and incentives support that behaviour.

Do employees have sufficient industry and business understanding?

Can they challenge the customer's definition of the problem?

Do they have access to the necessary specialist knowledge?

And are they recognised for making good commercial decisions — even when those decisions do not lead to a quick order?

A company cannot credibly ask employees to prioritise long-term customer value if all management signals reward short-term sales.

Perhaps we are asking the wrong question

I would therefore be cautious about making Trusted Advisor another title on the organisation chart.

What matters is not what we call the salesperson.

What matters is the role the customer wants them to play.

An ordinary supplier is contacted when the customer knows what to buy. A trusted advisor may be contacted when the customer is still trying to understand what should be done.

That is an interesting commercial position.

And perhaps one of the most valuable positions a company can build in a market where information is increasingly freely available.

Next article in the series

If modern sales require insight, trust and the ability to create better customer decisions, how should we measure the salesperson's work?

Article 3: Do not focus on sales. Focus on your activities, and sales will follow.

Here I challenge the notion that a high level of activity automatically creates high sales performance.