The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, et. al , Book Review.

We are all advisors and communicators!

Text For our last book in our second business book review series we have, another oldie from 2000 The Trusted Advisor (ISBN 978-0-7432-0776-8), written by David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford. This book written before many of our blog readers here were born or in school, is an interesting short book of just a few hundred pages but contains a strong message that is very relevant the small business owners that we work with.  This review and book will be one of a two-pointed perspective. I find a lot of value in the message and the perspective of being an advisor and sharing your specific knowledge with those clients of yours, and developing that relationship, however this book struggles to be both relevant and it´s age shows in both its writing and it´s references. This pre internet and social media book is interesting as it speaking to a time that is significantly more direct person to person interpersonal, but it also therefore lacks the more modern experience that most of us will have with social media, instant global access and AI realities that are impacting our current landscape.  The value of the messages within however are worth discussing they just come in a wrapper which shows it´s age.

Relationships & People, vs Power- games

The Trusted Advisor, our book speaks of is ultimately about building relationships with clients, customers, and decision makers. The authors spend a lot of pages to discuss both the role we as the potential advisors have in the relationship with our clients and customers. The Book is broken up into three sections, the first discusses what is trust, what are the roles that people have in developing and having trust and explores the value and benefit of having trustful relationships. The second portion focuses on a method the authors have for building trust with clients and customers, where the final section, now describes how to make this new relationship work for you and them.

Trust as spoken about in the book is a very tangible thing, that comes from a respectful, open, and communicated relationship between two people. I feel this is the strength in the book and what comes through in the examples they use to illustrate their points. This is about building relationships and connections with people. With a focus on benefits, and connection. There is no discussion of the common tropes of deceit power dynamics that commonly come to mind when looking at common business relationship ideas. This book which is rooted in world of and language of corporations, is more about interpersonal dynamics and gainful building of those then any type of power flexing or manipulation ideas. While the book lacks many of the contextual realities of doing business in 2026, the interpersonal focus of having and building trust with your clients, is a still very relevant message for those of us that both sell services and products.

The core message to the book to build trust, is to understand that this is an investment, to a goal of bigger things. It´s work, and takes time, effort and delivers its value over time. This time is built to both establish the relationship with your client as well as setting you to be the person that learn and allow to provide advice. The position of trusted advisor is one that you earn, through the relationship and in that status, you get the ability to support the clients and your own success. This investment reflecting itself through a mutual understanding and simplified access to the client and their business.

The reason I find this book is relevant currently comes from the reality that many of our small business owners and creators, are enabling bigger and bigger projects, with more direct access then before. Where previous big projects were the purview of whole studios and larger businesses, many projects now engage single people and small studios. This type of economy is built on interpersonal relationships of trust, reliability, and capability. We are seeing more and more professionals being drawn into projects where they are the key contributor and having an ability to build relationships is core to their potential success. If you´re an entrepreneur or solo enterprise, you must trust and be trusted. There isn´t a sales team to have those conversations, it´s you and becoming a trusted advisor as the book outlines can be the very difference of success.

I appreciate the book´s message vs. the context that it was written in, with many of the examples and stories being those of a world of 26 years ago where consultants, and corporate representatives meet in meeting rooms and had long discussions, pre internet, pre social media, pre our global world.  The message of having strong relationships and working to be the trusted partner of a client however hasn´t changed.

The methods and tools discussed in the book are interesting and I feel they give some good perspectives for those new to the interpersonal game of selling, communicating and relationship building. Many of them are familiar to us who have careers that have been built in this space but for those new to this space the book has a lot of lessons to teach and some wise ways to change your mentality and focus when building the long-term relationships that this book focuses on.

Summary

There is no way to get around the fact the book is old, I´ve mentioned this several times in this review, and I feel that even in the formatting of the book this is less readable than it could have been. It uses and obnoxious number of bullet-points.  

However, the message and the ideas related to building relationships, seeking trust, and nurturing it, I feel is still very relevant for any business owner that is selling services, long term products and projects, advice, or consulting services or similar.  It´s a quick read and simple which strong points. I recommend it for most small business owners that see trust and relationships with their clients, community, and vendors to be part of their business plan.

If you´re struggling with your trust relationships or want to understand how a consultant voice that is focused on you and your businesses success, then don´t hesitate to reach out to us on email (timh@department45.eu ) or on DM via our Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/department45.eu/ ) To schedule your free first hour consultation. We focus on your success and look forward to speaking with you on how we can help.

Otherwise thank you for your time

Tim H.

Lead Consultant

Department45.eu