All for One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships

Book description

Corporate clients are demanding more value from their external advisors, and consolidating their business around a smaller number of firms. These trends are forcing a variety of service providers—from consulting firms to large banks—to confront a series of difficult challenges:

  • How do we create an 'all-for-one, one-for-all' culture in which the whole is greater than the sum-of-the-parts and we succeed in leveraging our global network to deliver value to clients?"

  • How do we mobilize the right people, resources, and ideas—across a multitude of organizational and geographic boundaries—into each and every client relationship?"

  • How do we evolve from a trusted advisor to a trusted partner and build multi-year, institutional relationships?

  • All for One answers these questions with an innovative and comprehensive model for developing enduring, institutional client relationships—what Andrew Sobel refers to as Level 6 Trusted Client Partnerships. It offers readers ten specific strategies that are thoroughly supported by case studies, best practices from leading firms, and implementation tools. The individual professional is principally responsible for five of these strategies, while the firm—the institution—must support and drive the other five. When you successfully execute against all ten of these building blocks, you develop long-term, professional-client partnerships that provide great value to the client and high levels of personal satisfaction and profitability for the service provider.

    Table of contents

    1. Cover Page
    2. Additional Praise for All for One
    3. Title Page
    4. Copyright
    5. Dedication
    6. Contents
    7. Introduction
    8. PART I: A Road Map for Building Trusted Client Partnerships
      1. 1: Reaching Level 6: Trusted Client Partner
        1. Citigroup and Royal Dutch Shell
        2. Booz Allen Hamilton and the U.S. Navy
        3. Underpinnings of Trusted Client Partnerships
        4. Level 1: Contact
        5. Level 2: Acquaintance
        6. Level 3: Expert
        7. Level 4: Vendor or Steady Supplier
        8. Level 5: Trusted Advisor
        9. Level 6: Trusted Partner
        10. How Do You Know You've Reached Level 6?
        11. Importance of Reaching Level 6
        12. Why It Matters to Clients
      2. 2: Employing 10 Integrated Strategies
        1. Do You Have a Client-Centered, Collaborative Culture?
        2. Conclusion
    9. PART II: The Five Individual Strategies
      1. 3: Strategy One: Becoming an Agenda Setter
        1. What Is an Agenda?
        2. Principal Concerns of Senior Executives
        3. Personal Concerns
        4. Institutional Concerns
        5. Pressures on Senior Executives
        6. Agendas and the Executive Life Cycle
        7. Evolving through Three Stages
        8. Getting Better at Agenda Sensing
        9. Industry Knowledge
        10. Approaches for Engaging in Agenda Setting
        11. Tools of Influence
        12. Helping Your Client Implement an Agenda
        13. Agenda Setting: What Successful Trusted Advisors Say
        14. Conclusion
      2. 4: Strategy Two: Developing Relationship Capital
        1. How Many Is Enough?
        2. The Critical Few versus the Many
        3. The Critical Few: Developing Your Relationship Hubs
        4. Step 1: Clarify and Develop Your Personal Brand
        5. Step 2: Identify Your Relationship Hubs
        6. Step 3: Consider Weak Links and Potentials
        7. Step 4: Assess Loyalty and Connectivity
        8. Step 5: Stay in Touch
        9. The Critical Few: Conclusion
        10. The Many: Developing Your Broader Network
        11. Models for Building a Network and a Client Base
        12. Conclusion
      3. 5: Strategy Three: Engaging New Clients
        1. First Meetings
        2. Goal one: Build Rapport
        3. Goal two: Understand the Other Person's Issues
        4. Goal three: Demonstrate Credibility
        5. Goal four: Establish a Next Step
        6. Conversational Techniques
        7. Listening Pitfalls
        8. Engaging with Senior Executives
        9. Value for Time
        10. Getting to Know Clients as People
        11. Accelerating Trust
        12. Conclusion: Relationship-Building Principles
      4. 6: Strategy Four: Institutionalizing Client Relationships
        1. From Trusted Advisor to Trusted Partner
        2. Pathway 1: Relationship Expansion
        3. Pathway 2: Capabilities Expansion
        4. Pathway 3: Client Relationship Management
        5. Pathway 4: Team Leadership
        6. Pathway 5: Client Account Planning
        7. Conclusion
      5. 7: Strategy Five: Adding Multiple Layers of Value
        1. What Is Value?
        2. Foundations of Value
        3. Determining What Is Valuable for Each Client
        4. Value Tools
        5. The Value Positioning Process
        6. The Value Matrix
        7. The Value Levers
        8. Conclusion
    10. PART III: The Five Institutional Strategies
      1. 8: Strategy Six: Targeting the Right Clients
        1. The Right Client
        2. The Right Executive
        3. The Right Issue
        4. Value to You
        5. Improving Client Targeting across the Organization
        6. Conclusion
      2. 9: Strategy Seven: Building a Client Leadership Pipeline
        1. Role of the Relationship Manager
        2. 1. Aspiration Setting
        3. 2. Relationship Strategy
        4. 3. Client Leadership
        5. 4. Team Leadership
        6. 5. Ambassadorship
        7. 6. Commercial Management
        8. Capabilities of the Relationship Manager
        9. Recruiting Potential Relationship Managers
        10. Developing Relationship Managers
        11. Career Management
        12. Coaching and Mentoring
        13. Training
        14. Senior Forums
        15. Experience Sharing Summits
        16. Fast-Track or High-Potential Programs
        17. E-Learning and Other Approaches
        18. Supporting Relationship Managers
        19. Measuring and Assessing Relationship Managers
        20. Conclusion
      3. 10: Strategy Eight: Promoting Collaboration
        1. A Tale of Two Firms
        2. Consequences of Not Collaborating: Feral Children
        3. Roots of Collaboration
        4. Reciprocal Altruism
        5. Implications of Evolutionary Psychology for Modern Organizations
        6. What Gets in the Way: Survey Results
        7. Strategies to Build a Collaborative Culture
        8. Inculcation Strategies
        9. Institutionalization Strategies
        10. Infrastructure
        11. Collaboration in Complex Services Organizations: The U.S. Joint Forces Command
        12. Conclusion
      4. 11: Strategy Nine: Listening to Clients
        1. Surveys
        2. Relationship Manager Reviews
        3. Independent Client Reviews
        4. Senior Management Visits
        5. Client Events and Forums
        6. Conclusion
      5. 12: Strategy Ten: Creating a Unique Client Experience
        1. Creating a Unique Client Experience
        2. Client Forums
        3. Insight from Leading Customers
        4. Joint Business Development
        5. Simulations
        6. Customizing an Entire Firm
        7. Defining the Relationship at the Start: Setting Expectations
        8. Giving Pricing Control to Clients
        9. Creating a New Business Model for Service Delivery
        10. Using Virtual Experience Environments
        11. How Do You Design a Different Client Experience?
        12. An Approach to Redesigning the Client Experience
        13. Standardizing the Client Relationship Experience
        14. Conclusion
    11. PART IV: Frequently Asked Questions and Conclusion
      1. 13: Answers to the Most Commonly Asked Questions about Building Client Relationships
        1. Conclusion
      2. 14: Conclusion
    12. Index

    Product information

    • Title: All for One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships
    • Author(s): Andrew Sobel
    • Release date: April 2009
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9780470380284