Building Client Relationships in a Downturn

Author:

Andrew Sobel

Ironically, the devastation wrought by World War II created the circumstances for many positive and creative changes around the world, once the conflict was over. The Marshall Plan, which helped modernize Europe, emerged in the war’s aftermath; the United Nations was created; new and stronger democracies came into being; new technologies were adopted into civilian markets; Germany, Japan, and the US turned their industrial energies toward private sector economic growth; and so on. Similarly, I believe the current economic crisis can be a powerful catalyst for developing new and better client relationships and for personal renewal.

If you’d like to revitalize your client relationships and re-engage with the marketplace, here is a list of seven actions you should initiate in the next 30 days. I list them in order of relative urgency.

1. Make a list of your 15-25 core relationships. These should include current clients (list individuals), prospective clients, colleagues, catalysts (influencers, people who can make deals happen and introduce you to others), collaborators (professionals or firms that you may collaborate with and exchange leads with), and counselors (mentors and advisors to you).

My research shows that relationships with individuals representing a broad spectrum of roles (including non-clients such as colleagues, catalysts, etc) are essential to success with clients. Start this process with a list of these critical few―of your most important relationships, in other words, not a database of 500 people you may have met.

2. Identify a next step to create face time with each person on your list. There are endless reasons to get in touch. You could follow up on a project that was done last year. You could develop a point of view on an issue of importance to that individual. You could offer a valuable introduction. You could ask thoughtful questions about how their company is managing through the economic crisis, and share some of the things your other clients are
doing.

I like to think about four ways you can add value during these short interactions: Offering ideas and perspectives (content); Making valuable introductions (connection); Offering personal help (e.g., career counseling, advice to a teenager about college or career choices, etc.); and having fun (going to a sporting event or concert).

3. Create a one-page, personal Sales Funnel. Put all of your current client opportunities in three categories: Category A should represent initial conversations you have had or are having about an identified issue (there might be a number of these preliminary leads). More developed discussions would be under the B category. For these, you’ve met the client several times, a clear issue is on the table, and you’ve discussed an approach and possible fees. C’s are submitted proposals. Pick your three best opportunities―ones you can
still influence, which will probably be from the A or B categories―and really work these with your colleagues. Leave no stone unturned. Have a highly experienced colleague review what you’ve done so far and make suggestions. Make sure you’ve identified and met with all key buying influences (economic buyer, work-with buyer, influencers, procurement, etc.), and that you have a coach.

Ensure that you’ve pinpointed which are the most valuable benefits for the client. Make a list of possible barriers to each sale, and brainstorm how you will overcome them.

4. Now, turn to your core clients (some of the opportunities in 3 could be with core clients―that’s fine―I’m trying to sequence my recommendations into immediate, short-term, and medium-term actions). Pick one as a model. Now, make a list of ways in which you could re-engage and revitalize this relationship. I would focus on the following questions or issues:

a. How well do you really know this client, the industry, and the overall environment it is working within? What knowledge gaps should you be filling?

b. What is this client’s “Agenda”? By Agenda I mean the company’s 4-5 most critical priorities and goals. What is your individual client’s Agenda? What business issues is he or she focused on right now? What personal issues are of concern? (e.g., retiring and leaving a legacy; getting promoted; keeping their job; etc.).

c. What pain-points or critical issues could you help them address? How can you showcase your firm’s capabilities to them and build trust in your ability to solve their issues? Do you have a “branded expert” colleague that you could introduce? Another client you could have them talk to?

d. Is there an opportunity, due to slack capacity, to do a free piece of work for this client, in an area of critical interest? Or, at least, to invest in developing a thought piece or set of recommendations around a particular issue?

e. Given the turmoil, is there an opportunity to create a different “relationship experience environment” for this client? For example, to: Take them offsite? Create a workshop experience to look at previously unthinkable options? Create a forum for them to meet some other like-minded clients and engage in peer-to-peer sharing? Use collaboration technology to connect with them?

f. Does each member of your team have clear relationship-building responsibilities with this client? Are you building many-to-many relationships, at multiple levels?

5. You’ve now dealt with the short and medium term. You’re getting more face time with your 15 or 20 most important relationships; you’ve done everything possible to maximize your best near-term sales opportunities; and you’ve refocused on growing your core clients. Now, let’s think about the next 12 months.

What can you do today to make sure you have a robust leads-stream in the second half of the year? Think about this: There are probably fewer opportunities out in the market right now, and your average success rate for turning one of them into a concrete proposal―and winning that proposal—is probably less than it was a year ago. So you simply have to get sight of more opportunities‹otherwise, your revenues will plummet.

Start by identifying 3 or 4 “traffic building” activities that you can commit to. These can include publishing and speaking; professional association involvement; industry networking; social networking; working with collaborators (a bank or law firm or private equity firm); developing a new service offering; and so on. The list is endless. What activities, in short, will help reinforce your professional credentials and expertise while getting you in front of potential clients or people who can refer clients to you? Don’t say you’re going to do 20 things in the next six months. Rather, pick a few, write them down, and follow through.

6. Think about how to use the coming months to “sharpen the saw” ―to deepen your current skills, develop new ones, and increase your effectiveness as a professional and as a client advisor. The latest research shows that most people don’t really learn from experience―in fact, more experience can actually make you worse at your job. This is because we don’t engage in what scientists call Deliberate Practice. We don’t really work at the specific things that will make us better―rather, we show up and do the same activities over and over again without getting better.

Write down a few things you’d like to work on. Maybe it’s extending your experience to a new field or practice area. Perhaps this year you’d like to get your Myers-Briggs certification, take a leadership role in an industry conference, or spend a month in one of your firm’s international offices working on a project. Or to go to that weekend photography workshop (or meditation retreat you’ve been eyeing...).

7. In everything you do this year, collaborate more than ever. Work to connect with your colleagues and friends. At the signing of the American Declaration of Independence, the sage Ben Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” This certainly applies to today’s economic crisis.

You may feel stymied because some clients are cutting back and saying they have no budget right now. But a client in need can be a great client indeed. You simply have to be more creative than usual about the different ways you can help your clients, bold about offering that help, and flexible in how You’re willing to structure and deliver it.

Finally, sit back and breathe. 2009 won’t be easy. But for sure, it will carry surprises for each one of us―and I believe some of those will be very positive ones.

Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client loyalty. He is a consultant and educator to major services firms worldwide. Andrew is the author of the business bestsellers Clients for Life (Simon & Schuster/Fireside) and Making Rain (John Wiley & Sons). He can be reached at andrew@andrewsobel.com Tel: 505.982.0211 http://www.andrewsobel.com

When Clients Want a Discount

By Andrew Sobel

Especially in a difficult economy, clients may ask you for a discount. There are at least five reasons why a client will pressure you to reduce your fees, and you need to understand which of these is at the root of the discount request in order to effectively respond. I've named a client type for each of these reasons:

1. "Red Ink": This client is under extraordinary budgetary pressure due to a decline in profits, and really is having trouble funding your work. Right now, there are a many companies out there which are in this predicament. In this case, try in earnest to structure your work to help the client meet internal budget pressures. Make recommendations for ways that your clients can become more efficient and productive in the way they are spending their budget for your particular service. One of the firms I work with, for example, was told by a large Fortune-500 company that it was cutting the budget for all external service providers by 50% across the board. My client spent serious time developing a very cogent business case which showed that the company could save more by consolidating around just a couple of suppliers, and they were able to retain the same level of fees while increasing their share of the company's total spend.
   
   In the midst of one of the toughest economic environments in history, now is the time to be creative and flexible – without completely abandoning your economic model – as you work with cash-strapped clients.
   
   
2. "Competition Czar": Your client has solicited proposals from a number of your competitors, and says you are more expensive for what appears to be the same service. In this case you need to invest in a value-added proposal that illustrates how you are different from the competition. Provide multiple options in your proposal. Treat your prospective client as if they were already a client.
   
   
3. "Bargain Hunter": This client always likes to dig around for the best deal, irrespective of who you are, the service you offer, or the degree of competition. You might satisfy this client's bargain-hunting instincts with a small concession on price or an extra piece of value-added work.
   
   
4. "King Commodity": The client perceives your service to be a commodity or near-commodity, and buys mostly on price. You have three options: Avoid them, add value to show that your service really isn't a commodity, or lower your delivery cost and compete on price.
   
   
5. "Chicken Little": This client likes to fret about how expensive everything is, including you. I've had a handful of these clients in my career. They value the work I do, but they love to make comments about my fees and how expensive I am. I suggest you sympathize but hold your ground. Describe the quality ingredients that go into your delivery, and frequently communicate the value you are adding. Emphasize that you are indeed best used for those issues where extremely high quality and thoroughness is required, and make a point of turning down some work that could be done more efficiently by someone else.
   

In every case, be sure to:

• Always link your proposal to the client's critical issues, needs, and objectives. · Clearly articulate the value of the work you are proposing. · Make an effort to identify what the client truly values about your proposal. You may have five elements to your proposed program, but it could be that two or three of them represent 90% of the perceived value.
  
  
• Respond to fee pressure by offering lower-cost options that restructure the work without destroying your profit margin. Propose doing less than what is in the original proposal, suggest that the client take on some of the tasks itself, or start with a small diagnostic phase.
  
  
• Talk about the integrity of your fees and don't cave in mindlessly. One senior executive said to me, "If I challenge an invoice, I actually don't want the firm to immediately knock 20% off it. If they do, it makes me think I should question every invoice, and then the whole billing process loses integrity."
  
  
• Propose discounts, rebates, or other pricing mechanisms that are tied to creating a larger, stronger relationship with the client as opposed to just cutting current prices.
  
  
• Reduce the client's risk of doing business with you rather than cut fees. For example, break a large engagement down into small pieces with checkpoints along the way.
  
  
• Don't chase down every lead or RFP – if you cannot invest the time to develop a highly tailored, value-added proposal, don't bother. That's hard to do in a difficult economy, but it's usually the best strategy.
  
  
• Because of the economic contraction, you may need to be especially thoughtful about how you set and structure your fees. The one approach I don't like is to simply reduce fees on a blanket basis because a client tells you they are suffering a profit squeeze. You know that they will not pay you a premium when times are good, so why should you give a deep discount when times are bad? However, as noted above, you may need to consider delaying your billing; providing one or two value-added services at no additional charge (producing an assessment of a particular issue, facilitating a workshop for the client, providing some training for in-house staff, etc.); agreeing to use more of the client's own people on an engagement; accelerating a project's timescales; and so on.
  

Finally, don't take it personally if you're asked for a discount. If someone questions your fees, respond with some thoughtful questions about his or her concerns and try to understand why the subject is being raised to begin with.

Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client loyalty. He is a consultant and educator to major services firms worldwide. Andrew is the author of the business bestsellers Clients for Life (Simon & Schuster/Fireside) and Making Rain (John Wiley & Sons). He can be reached at andrew@andrewsobel.com (Tel: 505.982.0211). http://www.andrewsobel.com

Published Networking Today December 2008

DON'T WRITE A PROPOSAL JUST YET

By Andrew Sobel

In tough economic times, many professionals jump at the opportunity to submit a proposal to a potential client. It is a chance to book new business, and who can resist the adrenaline rush that usually goes along with the prospect of an impending sale? Proposals, however, can be huge time wasters. The problem is that some clients who are not serious buyers will ask for a written proposal. Others may prematurely ask for a proposal before the proper steps have been worked through and the right relationships established. Furthermore, your willingness to write a proposal too quickly will actually position you as a vendor rather than a thoughtful in-demand advisor who is discerning about the work you will take on.

You need to cover all the right bases during the business development process to ensure a successful sale and a fruitful relationship. Here are 8 prerequisites for submitting a proposal to a new or existing client:

1. You are certain this is the right client and issue for you and your firm. Is this an appropriate client – in terms of size, complexity, location, potential to create conflicts with other clients, etc. – given your strategy? It this issue in your "sweet spot?" Is the executive with whom you will work an effective, respected individual in his or her organization? Are there other compelling reasons to seek this work?
   
   
2. You have a thorough understanding of the issues you are being asked to address, and also a clear sense of the business goals or needs which are influencing them. This could happen in one conversation, but more likely will only unfold over two or three discussions.
   
   
3. You and the client have agreed on the specific objectives of the work – on the outcomes that are sought.
   
   
4. You understand the client's buying process. Usually, you will have to ask about this. I believe it is completely appropriate to ask questions such as:
   
   Can you walk me through your decision-making process?
   Who will approve the budget for this work?
   Who will make the final decision about selecting a firm to work with?
   Can you share with me your timeframe for making a decision?
   May I ask, what other firms you are talking to?
   
   
5. You have spoken to or met with the Economic Buyer. This is the individual who can make the decision to hire you and your firm. This could be a middle manager or it could be the CEO – it will vary from situation to situation. Often, the first person who calls you is not the economic buyer. He or she is usually a feasibility buyer (someone who is screening service providers, who can say No but not Yes) or a user-buyer (a client executive who would work with you on the engagement but cannot make the decision to hire someone). The worst mistakes made during the sales process are often around the identity and role of the economic buyer. Sometimes, people think they know who the economic buyer is when they actually do not, and on other occasions they just don't focus in on this critical buying influence, and end up wasting huge amounts of time writing a proposal that never gets a true hearing.
   
   
6. You understand what is most important to the client – in other words, what particular value they are seeking. For example: Is speed critical? How important is cost? What about quality – do they need a very comprehensive review, or a preliminary, cursory examination of the issues? If this a one-off transaction, or is the client looking for a longer-term relationship? Which aspect of your proposed approach does the client most value?
   
   
7. You have discussed the essential elements of your proposal with the client. Before you submit a written proposal, you must achieve conceptual agreement about what is going to be in it. You might say, "Before I send you this proposal, I would like to meet with you to walk through our basic approach. That way I can get your reactions and input before finalizing it."
   
   
8. You have an agreement to discuss the proposal with the client after you submit it. "I'm sending the proposal over later today. If it would fit your schedule, I'd like to set up a meeting later this week so we can discuss it." You don't want to spend a lot of time writing a proposal, and then send it into a black hole. Schedule a phone call or face-to-face meeting to put the client on the hook to read the proposal and share his or her reactions with you.
   

If you haven't addressed all of these points before you submit a proposal, you may be wasting your time.

Just because business is scarce doesn't mean you should jump at every opportunity to write a proposal. On the contrary, you should focus on those opportunities that make the most sense for you and then double-down on them. Really invest to understand your clients' businesses and their key issues, treat them like they are already a client, and add significant value during the selling process.

Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client loyalty. He is a consultant and educator to major services firms worldwide. Andrew is the author of the business bestsellers Clients for Life (Simon & Schuster/Fireside) and Making Rain (John Wiley & Sons). He can be reached at andrew@andrewsobel.com (Tel: 505.982.0211). http://www.andrewsobel.com

Published Networking Today November 2008

Winning a New Client When There Is an Incumbent

By Andrew Sobel

Breaking into a new client requires skill and perseverance under any circumstances, but especially so when the client already has a strong relationship with a firmly entrenched competitor. If the client is satisfied with an existing provider, there has to be a compelling reason for them to shift their business to you. It can and does happen, however. After enjoying the fruits of a relationship for many years, an existing advisor can get complacent, leaving room for an energetic, creative, and determined newcomer to capture the client’s imagination.

Here are 9 principles that can help guide you in trying to win business from a new client, which already has strong, existing relationships with the competition:

1. Look for trigger events. There are a number of circumstances that will make it easier to build a relationship. There could include things such as:
   
   
   • A conflict. Due to a conflict with another client, your competitor may find itself unable to execute a piece of work. This can most commonly occur with investment banks and law firms, but similar situations can arise with other types of advisors.
     
     
   • Executive changes. The individual who has a strong relationship with your competitor may leave or be reassigned elsewhere.
     
     
   • Reorganizations. This may cause the client to rethink how it distributes its business among outside firms.
     
     
   • Economic events or shocks. Sometimes, a profit crunch or loss of market share will trigger a company to rethink its use of advisors (e.g., clients will often change advertising agencies for these reasons).
     
     
   • Turnover or retirements at the competition. If a lead partner or key relationship manager retires, for example, this may be an opportunity to press your case and invest in trying to capture some share of wallet.
     
     
   • A service or quality failure on the part of your competition. One of my clients won over a new client despite that company’s ten-year relationship with another advisor. They were told that the incumbent, in ten years, had never learned anything about the client’s business, and the client was tired of their complacency and of the generic advice they were getting.
     
     
2. Try to identify something small or non-threatening that you can work on. If, in order to hire you, a client has to dump an existing provider with whom they have a good relationship, your chances of success are very small. How would you feel if someone you just met said, “I want to be your friend, but you have to get rid of your best friend in order for us to build a relationship”?
   
   
3. Focus on an area where you are clearly differentiated or have a tangible strengths vis-à-vis your competitor. I’ve seen firms make inroads because they had a strong presence in a particular market or country, or had done some unique research around an issue of importance to the client. Ask yourself, “Where do we have a particular strength we can leverage?”
   
   
4. Invest to earn their trust and respect. The incumbent has the advantages of knowing the client better than you and having built up a repository of trust that you lack. You’re probably going to have to go above and beyond in terms of making an up-front investment in understanding the client’s issues and organization.
   
   
5. Identify executives in the client organization who are not so loyal to the other provider. You’ll certainly be able to capture the attention and interest of these executives more easily, potentially dividing and conquering.
   
   
6. Emphasize innovation and new ideas. Clients are always looking for fresh perspectives, and they will usually not let an existing relationship get in the way of at least listening to someone else’s good ideas. One of my own clients aspired to work for a major global company based in London, one that was the largest client of their direct competitor. Their ticket to entry was a bold strategy which involved leading with a controversial but well-developed and innovative viewpoint on the future of the industry. They also leveraged strategy (5), above, by appealing to a senior executive who was less tied to the other firm. Once inside, they all but entirely displaced the competition.
   
   
7. Be patient and persistent. Usually, it will take many visits and many conversations over a long period of time – months not weeks, certainly – to find the right opening.
   
   
8. Stay in touch so you are there when your number comes up. This applies to any new business development situation, but even more so when there is a major, established competitor. You may get lucky and receive what seems like a call out of the blue because a client’s advisors have an unforeseen conflict, but even such a call is likely to be the result of your systematic relationship-building efforts rather than serendipity.
   
   
9. Pick your shots. When there is a strong incumbent, breaking in can be an uphill struggle, and it’s no fun to bang your head against a door. Be selective about investing your time, and focus on those few opportunities where the potential payoff (future revenue, opportunity to serve a marquis client, etc.), multiplied by the probability of success, suggest a worthwhile goal. Sometimes, until there are some major personnel changes, the client just isn’t going to give you any business under any circumstances. If that’s the case, move on. Relationships do change – they aren't cast in concrete. Remember, this very week, your competitors are calling on your own best clients, trying to capture some of their business – the least you can do is return the favor. Don’t just play defense.

Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com

Published Networking Today September 2008

Are Conferences Worth It?

By Andrew Sobel

Is it useful to attend or speak at conferences? Can you really meet anyone of significance at them? Should going to conferences be part of your brand-building or relationship-building plan?

I’m occasionally asked about the value of conferences, and my own clients have had mixed results from them – some good, some bad. "They don't work for me," a partner at a leading professional services firm commented to me recently, adding, "I went to one last year and found myself presenting to a group of my competitors from other firms. It was a waste of time."

We can all probably remember a bad conference experience. Mine occurred nearly twenty years ago when I agreed to go to a financial services conference to present my firm's latest research on retail banking. I spoke after a very boozy dinner, by which point most of the participants were heavily inebriated. Halfway through my speech a loud crash and a shout reverberated throughout the conference hall – I thought a fight had broken out. In fact, one of the bankers in the audience had fallen asleep in his wooden chair, which was already tipped backwards on its rear legs, and it had flipped backwards, smashing into pieces!

That said, sometimes you can indeed make valuable connections at a conference and also build your public brand.

Whether or not a conference is useful for you will depend on:

1. The benefits you seek in the first place
2. The focus of the conference and the quality of the participants
   
3. How well you prepare for and take advantage of the actual event
   

Potential benefits can include:

• Meeting valuable contacts and extending your network.
• Learning, either from presenters or by developing your own ideas for a presentation.
• Building your personal brand by speaking or being part of a panel.
• Improving your confidence by getting out and mixing with other professionals.
• Being "seen" by high level prospects or thought leaders, which can contribute to a sense that you are "one of them."

Keep in mind that if you are a speaker, your bio and picture will undoubtedly be on the conference Web site, which will usually remain on the Web for years to come. This will raise your profile if a potential client looks your name up in a search engine. So even if the event is a dud, you will get some (albeit small) value out of an improved Google ranking.

Whether any major benefits accrue, however, will depend on who is there and how well you capitalize on the event.

Attractiveness of the Event
You have to ask yourself:

• Will there be buyers there? This is the key question: Will actual buyers of your services (or buying influences, or soon-to-be buyers) attend the event, will they hear you speak, and/or will you actually have the chance to meet them?
  
  
• Will there be others at the conference you would like to meet, for whatever reasons? (E.g., potential collaborators, key influencers, celebrities, thought leaders, etc.)
  
  
• Will it be valuable just to say you were there? (I cannot think of many conferences that would fit this criterion, except for perhaps the World Economic Forum at Davos or a Star Trek nostalgia event in Las Vegas.)
  
  
• Is it a sufficiently large event to make it worthwhile? While the most important factor is the quality of the attendees, it may be demoralizing to prepare for and speak at a conference where only twenty people show up, unless all twenty are CEOs.
  

Whom do you want to meet?
There are really three possible targets at a conference: The organizers, the other speakers, and the participants. In truth, the first two may be the most interesting, unless it's a high-level conference, which attracts c-level executives. The conference organizers may very well be able to make valuable introductions for you, and if you are a speaker, you earn a kind of peer relationship with the other speakers for the duration of the conference.

Preparation
Here are a few things to think about before attending any conference: · Always review the list of other speakers. Is there someone you'd like to get to know, or with whom you may have a common professional or personal interest?

• Ask the organizers for a participant list (tell them it's to focus your speech, which they will appreciate), and review it carefully.
  
  
• Show the list to your colleagues or other confidants and ask if they know anyone, or if they would like to connect with or deepen relationships with any individuals or firms who will be present.
  

Differentiating yourself
If you're a speaker or panelist, and you want to attract inquiries from potential clients or other important influencers, you've got to have a truly interesting, differentiated, and compelling message. I have seen many presenters get up and show one boring PowerPoint slide after another at conferences, slowly lulling the audience to sleep. I watch audience members as they use their Blackberries, shuffle out for coffee, and nod off. You need to follow the rules for any good speech, which are spelled out in a number of excellent books on this topic. My own suggestions:

• Develop a unique and possibly controversial point of view, which will differentiate you and grab people's attention. Don't just spew facts – create tension with an engaging perspective.
  
  
• Develop an opening hook to rivet the audience's attention in the first few minutes. This could be a surprising statistic, a provocative question, or a funny anecdote, which makes a useful point or highlights a controversy.
  
  
• Try to use few or no slides. Tell stories rather than read from bullet points.
  
  
• Do something memorable in your talk. Show a video clip, play music, interact with the audience, leave the podium and walk around the room, and so on.
  
  
• Never sell yourself or your firm in your speech or appear to be touting your credentials – it is a complete turn-off for the audience. You want to create potential buyers by earning the respect of the audience for your intellect and experience and by evoking their curiosity to meet you and hear more wisdom. (A friend of mine reported watching the CEO of a major technology company virtually booed off the stage at a major conference because he was overtly selling during his presentation!)
  
  
• Make sure your contact details are easily visible and available to participants; e.g., put your name, email, and phone number on every page of your presentation and in your bio sketch.
  

In mingling with other participants, follow common-sense rules for engaging with others:

• Don't be shy about going up to people and introducing yourself.
  
  
• Have a few, basic questions prepared to get the other person talking.
  Introduce yourself, and state succinctly who you are and what you do.
  
  
• If appropriate, ask for the other person's card and give them yours. Try to briefly connect, and then move on.
  

Think long and hard about why you're going and whether or not the conference makes sense given your goals. But keep in mind that most professionals are in the relationship marketing business, not the add-more-contacts-to-my-database business, and they often fail to invest in building relationships with valuable individuals they already know or can be easily introduced to by colleagues, clients, or friends.

It takes time to attend conferences, and doing so should supplement, not substitute for, your relationship building efforts with that core group of twenty or thirty people who represent your "critical few" relationships that will truly help you and your firm prosper.


Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com


Published in Networking Today, May 2008

Providing More Value for Time to Senior Executives

By Andrew Sobel

Recently, I was trying to organize a conference call between the chairman of a large professional services firm and another executive. I said to the chairman, “Let’s just get a 20-minute call organized with William.” He took a deep breath and replied, “Andrew, you need to realize that I have about 50 people lined up here, and each one just wants ‘just’ 20 minutes with me.”

The point is that every senior executive I know could easily fill each day twice over. For every request, they are asking, “Does this align with my most critical priorities? Can someone else handle this? Can it wait a few weeks?” They invest their time in relationships only where there is tangible value for them. For busy senior executives, value for time – even more than value for money – has become immensely important. If you want to successfully build strong relationships with executives, you have to understand how to consistently add value for time.

Why is value for time so important now? Executives have always been busy but today, things are genuinely worse. Corporate managers have to deal with a variety of activist constituencies, which include customers and shareholders but also investigative journalists, non-governmental organizations, enforcement agencies, boycott organizers, and others. They also have to manage and digest greater organizational complexity, new technologies, globalization, and the resultant avalanche of internal meetings, email, and documents that these produce. Yet there are still only 24 hours in each day.

So, how do you maximize value for time for your clients? First, let’s try to summarize what value for time represents. Value for time could include both giving value and getting value in a fairly brief exchange. An executive is giving value when he is energizing an important initiative, making a key decision, shaping the direction of a program, meeting a key customer, or perhaps mentoring a direct report. He’s feeling, “I really used the power of my office and my experience and judgment to have an impact here.”

On the other hand, she is getting value when she’s learning valuable new information, being pushed to rethink a problem, getting her perspectives broadened, or making a new personal connection. Above all, your message has to align with her goals and priorities. If she’s not thinking, “That was a really great use of my time,” you won’t get a second chance.

Here are some suggestions for increasing the value you add during time spent with your clients:

1. Make sure that what you are discussing is aligned with or connected to that executive’s most important issues and priorities. If you’re not relating to your client’s most pressing concerns, he or she isn’t going to be enthusiastic about spending more time with you.
   
   
2. Remember that clients’ issues shift and change. One client executive, the general counsel for a large corporation, recently said to me, “When I was in private practice I had a misconception that my client’s issues were fairly static and didn’t change much week to week. Now I realize that’s just not the case. My priorities change frequently –at one point I may be under cost pressure, and trying to trim the fees we pay to outside lawyers; at another time, we may be in the middle of a large deal and our concern is speed and getting the transaction done, with little regard to cost.
   
   
3. A simple question can refocus the conversation – or at least make sure it includes what is most pressing for your client at that moment: What’s the most important issue we should be discussing this morning? Or, we hoped to cover X today. Is there something else we should also focus on?
   
   
4. Capture your client’s interest in the first few minutes of conversation. In pop music, it’s called the hook – it’s how you start the dialogue. Think of the guitar riff that introduces the Rolling Stones’ song “Satisfaction,” or the single guitar chord that begins the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” You’re commanded to listen. If you don't get the person’s attention in the first few minutes, you’ve lost the opportunity and may lose the rest of your half hour. One IT company I know told me about a recent meeting they had with the CEO of a major telco. After 15 minutes he looked at his watch and left – there was no hook, they hadn’t done their homework, and they failed to connect to his concerns.
   
   
5. Add unique information or insight that your client cannot get from his own people. For example: Insights about the organization and what¹s really going on 2 or 3 levels below that executive. - Information about the competition, which could include new moves in the marketplace but also news about the comings and goings of top executives - Examples of how other clients are handling similar issues or problems - Something that’s happening in a different industry or market that is relevant to your client’s business.
   
   
6. Think about adding value in four categories: content or ideas, connection, personal help, and fun.
   
   The first category – ideas – is the most important and we mentioned this in the previous point. It goes beyond the reporting of facts or information, however. It’s about improving your client's thinking.
   
   Are you making observations about the enterprise that are helping to shape your client’s perceptions? Are you challenging an assumption? Are you asking thought-provoking questions that no one else is posing to your client?
   Connection can be another source of value: Can you expand their personal network? Personal help can embrace many things – advising someone’s teenager about applying to your alma mater, getting them an appointment with a hard-to-reach medical specialist, or just being a sounding board about their next career move.
   
   Some people still like to have fun – to go to the opera or a playoff game – but often they’re just too busy, and usually this works best after you’ve delivered on the first three types of value.
   
   
7. Sometimes a conversation, which allows a client to try out ideas on you – or even talk out loud about a problem – can be extremely valuable. You don't need to bring a brilliant idea or a large PowerPoint deck to every meeting to convey value.
   
   
8. Help your clients organize and use their time effectively. You can do this through careful planning, asking about and being sensitive to other demands on their time, organizing meetings and calls in a way that’s most convenient for them, giving them a short pre-read which summarizes the issues, proving a brief note after your discussion, and so on.
   
   
9. Often, less is more. If you can accomplish in 30 minutes what others take an hour to achieve because they are sloppy and undisciplined in their communications, your client will be grateful. You want your client to wish he had more of your time, not less of it. 10. Finally, don’t do things such as: Talk excessively about yourself. Get mired in the details and take too long to get to the point. Act like a nervous supplicant. Try to sell rather than create “reach.” Rely too heavily on audio-visual props. Focus on your own agenda rather than the other person’s needs. Be inflexible and refuse to shift the focus of the conversation.
   

The next time you meet with a senior client executive, think about how you can make that session truly valuable.

Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com


Published in Networking Today, January 2008

Differentiating Yourself

By Andrew Sobel

A client of mine, a senior partner in a large professional firm, recently voiced the following frustration to me:

“We are unique in the way that we work with clients and we offer a clearly superior service. Clients don’t seem to recognize this though. We should have even more than our share of business.”

“Well,” I responded (probably somewhat unsympathetically), “Unfortunately, your clients just don¹t perceive that differentiation. They don’t see you as being particularly different compared to your competitors.” I challenged him to really explore how his firm was different and whether this actually translated into a perceptibly different and more valuable experience for the client.

Most professionals have experienced this dilemma. We believe our firms are unique, different, and better, but clients don't always share that warm feeling. It gets worse when you’re pitching for new business. If you’re one of five major investment banks competing for a major deal, it can feel like a brutal, uphill struggle. How do you demonstrate that you really are different?

Differentiation in service businesses, more often than not, occurs through the cumulative impact of many small actions. Comparatively, a product can have demonstrably superior technology and design features. Think Audi's Quattro four wheel drive system, or Apple's integrated multimedia software. Such a clear advantage is harder to achieve and demonstrate for a law firm or consulting firm that sells services rather than physical products.

So, how can you differentiate yourself and your firm? Clearly, the challenge is a bit different depending on whether you are trying to win a client over for the first time or have already established a working relationship.

When you are first getting to know the client:

1. Communicate a track record of having solved the client’s problem before.

2. Ask thoughtful questions which implicitly demonstrate your knowledge of the issues.

3. Prepare thoroughly. This sounds pretty basic. You’d be surprised how many clients have mentioned how many outside professionals come unprepared.

4. Be quick and responsive by sending a set of thoughtful discussion notes back to the client on the same day as the meeting.

5. Add value in the conversation by:

· Asking questions that really make the client think about the issues.

· Challenging assumptions or problem definitions.

· Sharing best practices and ideas that relate to the client's issue.

· Introducing interesting market and competitive information.

· Suggesting novel or counter-intuitive courses of action and implementation approaches

· Asking unique questions. "Is your organization truly convinced that you need to bring in an outside resource for this?" or "Have you assessed the risks of your approach? In our experience, several factors can typically derail progress..."

6. Clarify the client’s position about the issue at hand.

7. Discuss companies the client respects.

8. Establish rapport (identifying things you have in common, empathizing, discovering shared avocations or interests, using humor, etc.)

9. Project high levels of energy, enthusiasm, and passion. (Do you enjoy people who are low energy, bored by what they do, and lack emotion? I didn't think so).

10. Offer something tangible that other competitors just don't have.

11. Values and culture can be articulated to clients, and most importantly, demonstrated through your behavior and interactions.

Once you have established a relationship:

12. Promote the quality and impact of your work.

13. Indicate the depth of the relationships you build.

14. Contribute to both the institution and the client executives you are working with by adding multiple layers of value (core, personal, surprise).

15. Consider what kind of an experience you create for the client. How much transparency is there? What is the frequency and quality of interactions? Have you used technology to better connect with the client and create ongoing knowledge transfer? Have you reduced the client's cost of doing business?

16. Follow-up and listen to post project completion. (Meet with the client three months after a project is over to discuss the results, etc.).

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Remember, show that you are different through the experience you communicate, the quality of your thinking, and the depth of your personal interactions, not by projecting a PowerPoint slide that says you are the best. If you can give your clients a few good ideas or advance their understanding of their issues in your initial conversations, they will have positive proof that you are different than the competition.

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Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com

Published in Networking Today, May 2007.

Six Models for Building a Client Franchise

By Andrew Sobel

"How do I build a following?"

"How can I increase my leadstream?"

"How do I create a brand for myself in the marketplace?

These are important questions, and I get asked them frequently. The answer to all three is…it depends. There is no one right approach to building a client franchise, no single model that works for everyone. It depends on your interests, your personal and professional strengths, and even where you live. But there is a science to it.

In studying hundreds of highly successful professionals over the years, it's clear to me that there are six distinct network- or brand-building models that you can follow. These models overlap and they can be complementary to each other. But I find that most people "major" in just one of them and "minor" in a second because few of us have the skills and time availability to successfully pursue them all. Let's examine each of these, listed in order of approximate prevalence.

1. Industry Focus

Some professionals succeed by becoming industry experts. One client of mine, for example, runs the automotive group for a major consulting firm. The "pond" he fishes in consists of just a few hundred senior automotive industry executives around the world. He only works for automotive companies and their suppliers. He lives and breathes the industry, attending trade shows and industry events, showing up at annual stockholder meetings, writing articles about the future of the business, and so on. He is sometimes quoted in the press as an "industry expert." He has a broad base of knowledge about all the key functions of an automaker – manufacturing, marketing, sales, purchasing, and so on – although he's not a truly in-depth expert in any of them. Because his industry is global, his consulting practice is also global. Because of his knowledge and reputation, he is sought after by key figures in the industry, and he is able to get meetings even with automotive executives whom he doesn't know.

From a personal perspective, an industry focus can be very attractive because it gives you the opportunity to work with clients across a range of issues. It's also easy to figure out who your target clients are!

2. Functional or Product Focus

This is another common route to successfully building a client franchise. Instead of focusing on an industry or well-defined set of clients, you major in a skill area, function, or product that can be used by a variety of clients in multiple industries. I have an investment-banking client, for example, who is an expert in high-yield debt. He knows everything there is to be known about junk bonds, and he works with virtually any corporate client of his bank, depending on whether or not this product is of interest to that client at a particular point in time.

Another client of mine is an authority in change management, and again, she works with clients in many different industries and geographic locations.

This network-building model is often linked to number 3 – a focus on creating intellectual capital – because notoriety around your chosen function, product, or practice area is a key to success.

Industry experts often also have a functional or expert skill set – it's a question of breadth versus depth and relative emphasis. When you pursue this model, you really go deep into your specialty.

This model is attractive because you possess a clearly defined area of expertise which is needed, potentially, by almost any client in the world. You're not sunk, either, if a particular industry is in the doldrums.

3. Intellectual Capital Focus

All service professionals need to develop and accumulate intellectual capital – ideas, insights, frameworks, and concepts – that clients find valuable. However, some will make this a primary focus for building an inquiry stream from clients. To a great extent this is my own strategy: I devote considerable energy and time to research, and I have published extensively on the topic of developing enduring professional-client relationships. When you have an intellectual capital focus, you create interesting ideas, get them out into the marketplace through books, articles, speeches, etc., and then see who is interested.

The beauty of this model is that if you are successful, clients will contact you – you will rarely if ever have to cold-call, prospect, or even spend much time networking. On the downside, your ideas do need to have some real sizzle in order to rise above the clutter. As I said, while all professionals will do some intellectual capital development, a relatively small percentage will use this as their main client development model.

These last three models often complement the first three:

4. Large Client Focus

Have you known a lawyer, consultant, or advertising executive who spends most of her time working for just one major client? Some professionals, who tend to be very relationship focused, get to know a client extremely well, build an internal network with multiple buyers at that client, do good work, and never leave. In large professional firms, having a single client like this can really propel your career.

Sustaining a multi-year, multi-million dollar relationship with a large corporation takes a particular set of skills, however. You generally have to be highly credible with top executives but also able to build bridges at middle management levels. You have to have the patience and tenacity to survive reorganizations, firings, and the inevitable ups and downs that will occur. In my opinion, only a minority of professionals is capable of this, especially at the CEO level, but if you can manage to build this type of flagship client, you will – among other things – benefit from low selling costs and little downtime.

Often, industry focus and large client focus are combined.

5. Social Networking Focus

Some professionals – usually extroverts – excel at social networking. They are always "in the flow," hosting dinners, joining associations and clubs, going to cultural events, attending various happenings, and getting involved in non-profit causes. They are also good at using these connections to connect with decision makers in prospective client organizations. You can have a social networking focus almost anywhere, although I have noticed this model is more prevalent in Europe and Latin America.

Don't underestimate how valuable this approach can be. Years ago, when I moved to London to help start my firm's office there (as a lowly associate), one of the partners procured the first two flagship clients of the practice through his wife's social connections. These clients became the bedrock of the new office, ensuring its rapid success.

6. Geographic Focus

In a world where functional specialists may fly all over the world to work with clients in far-flung locations, there are still geographically-oriented business communities. If you live in Houston, Atlanta, Rome, or Budapest there are many opportunities to develop roots into the local community and focus on potential clients in your city. Of course you'll bring some functional or industry expertise, but a distinct geographic focus can be a valuable complement to the other five models. Some firms even do this explicitly, and have generalists build local business relationships, which are then served by bringing in the right experts from functional and industry practice groups. In the largest cities; e.g., New York and London, you may be able to pursue both a geographic focus with either an industry or functional model.

To summarize the 6 models:

1. Industry Focus

2. Functional/Product Focus

3. Intellectual Capital Focus

4. Large Client Focus

5. Social Networking Focus

6. Geographic Focus

Often, these six models are combined into natural clusters. For example:

• Industry + Large Client
• Functional/Product + Intellectual Capital
• Geographic + Social Networking

Of course, I'm sure we could find a financial services expert, specializing in trading systems, who lives in New York and only works for banks in the Big Apple...and loves giving large dinner parties and taking people to the Lincoln Center. But that's slicing things awfully thin. The critical success factors for each model are really somewhat different – each requires a particular set of skills and strategies to succeed – and to do really well at just two of the six is itself a challenge for most of us.

These models are intuitively obvious. You cannot do all of them well, however, you need to pick one or two paths that fit your professional skills and personality especially well. What's important is to make your choices explicitly and then develop the right implementation strategies to pursue them.

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Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com

Published in Networking Today, August 2006.

New Promotion, New Clients – Now What? Building a New Client Base

By Andrew Sobel

A client called me recently to tell me he had been promoted. That was the good news. The bad news was that his phone had stopped ringing and his calendar was emptying out.

Prior to his promotion, he had worked extensively with a senior professional in his firm, and had led most of the execution of the actual work, which his colleague had sold. His firm had reshuffled relationship responsibilities, and he was now being asked to develop business with a group of new clients, most of whom did not know him from Adam. He was, in effect, leaving behind some very senior-level client relationships – albeit as the number two from his firm – and facing the challenge of building new ones.

This is not an untypical situation as we progress in our careers, especially in a large firm. Let's look at the various strategies you have at your disposal to face my client's challenge. With a systematic approach, success here is nearly assured.

1. Leverage your current relationships to create new ones.

The most powerful introduction to a client who does not know you comes from one who does know you and the quality of your work. You need to make a list of every current or past client whom you believe could provide a referral and who may have a connection into one of the new clients you would like to meet with. After all, you've done great work for these clients at a very senior level – they should be quite comfortable connecting you to someone they already know. Systematically contact each one of them, and set up a meeting.

Spontaneous word-of-mouth referrals do happen, but if you ask you'll get five times as many as you will just waiting and doing nothing. (Professionals who excel at getting referrals often mention this at the start of the relationship: e.g., "My practice is based mostly on word-of-mouth, and in a year – assuming you’re are as delighted with our work as my other clients are – I will probably ask you for an introduction to someone who could similarly benefit from our approach...")

2. Offer your clients a fresh perspective on your sector or practice area.

Take a deep dive and invest some serious time on this. Interview key internal and external players to build a fresh perspective that you can use to create demand for meetings and provide you with interesting talking points. Don't send out some big document or research report – clients get more written reports than they can handle. Give them a teaser in an email, phone call, or letter and then use the point of view you've developed to create a dynamic face-to-face meeting.

One of the fundamental principles of effective salesmanship is curiosity. You need something that is evocative or controversial that will evoke your clients' interest in having a meeting in the first place. Surveys can be an excellent way to gather this type of data, and the sample size doesn't have to be as large as you think to be credible – quite a few business books have been written based on just 25 or 30 executive interviews.

3. Use your firm's network to get both advice and introductions.

If you work for a firm that has multiple offices, practices, industry groups, or product areas you have an untapped resource at your disposal. It is highly likely that someone else at your firm knows the executives you would like to build a relationship with – or at least they may know someone at the company who can be a coach to you and/or make other subsequent introductions.

Identify others whose own networks encompass one or more of the clients you want to get to know. Also, get advice, selectively, from your senior people. If they don't have a direct contact themselves, they may know another client who does.

Be focused in your approach, and make it clear you've done your homework both about the companies and potential messages you might bring them: Go to a few of your most experienced, senior, client-facing executives, and ask: "There are two particular companies that I'm trying to build a relationship with...I've looked at several potential entry strategies, but hit a dead end. Any thoughts? What's worked for you in this type of situation? Who in our network do you think could help me?"

4. Find a coach.

You many not be able to reach, on your first try, the executive you want to meet. A coach can help introduce you to the right people, enable you to understand who's who in the organization, and generally advise you in developing and growing a relationship. A coach could be a lower-level professional, a former executive of the company, a board member who has had a good experience with your firm in the past or (as in 3) a colleague in your firm who already knows the organization. Always find yourself a coach.

5. Identify your prospects' "watering holes."

This is a classic although somewhat longer-term strategy. Where do these clients congregate? What do they read? How do they spend their time outside of work? Nowadays, there are so many specialized media and forums that it may well be possible to narrowly target some conferences, events, and publications that will allow you to meet these prospective clients.

6. Segment and prioritize.

You cannot go after 10 or 20 clients at once, so you need to set priorities.

Do some of them have strong, pre-existing relationships with one or more of your competitors, making it difficult or impossible to break in? Is there a conflict or dissatisfaction that will give you an entry? Would it make sense to first talk to the mid- or smaller-capitalization companies on your list, versus the largest ones? Which ones are geographically close to you? Which ones are going through turmoil caused by declining profits, competitive incursions, price competition, reorganization, or other events? Which of these clients is most ideal for you and your firm, given what you can offer?

You might want to identify three groups, and go after them in phases.

7. Be different and memorable in your approach to these clients.

A plain-vanilla letter asking for a meeting to become acquainted with you and your firm is not likely to get a lot of attention or interest from a busy top executive or CEO. Nor will sending a brochure – clients receive hundreds of these each year, and they all look similar. The same goes for a letter which says you "just got promoted and wanted to meet"...or that your boss is in town and you would like to get together with him.

If you send a letter, it needs to have a strong "hook" – something that will get the recipient's attention. I prefer leading with solid content, the offer of value-added ideas – but novelty approaches, if used judiciously, can work as well. A client of mine got the attention of Southwest Airlines former CEO and founder, Herb Kelleher, by having one of their associates run around in front of Southwest's headquarters building wearing a wild turkey suit (Kelleher's favorite bourbon, apparently). Others have sent letters in a box also containing a waste can with their company's logo on the side, and a line in the letter which read, "I know you probably put most unsolicited correspondence like this in the trash, so just in case, this letter comes with its own waste bin. That said, we believe that a brief meeting to discuss..."

While these more outlandish approaches may not appeal to you, the basic principle is the same: Evoke your prospective client's curiosity and get his or her attention. Of course, if you employ points one and three above, you won't need to be quite so creative – you'll already have a warmed up introduction.


Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client and customer loyalty. He is coauthor of Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Development Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster). He can be reached at (505) 982-0211 or by e-mail at andrew@andrewsobel.com www.andrewsobel.com

Published in Networking Today, June 2006.