The Great Client Partner

There's no such thing as a "natural leader." Great leaders have a set of abilities essential to working with and inspiring others, including trust building, persuasion, time management, principled negotiating, and active listening. All of these soft skills can be learned-and Jared Belsky, one of the country's leading digital marketing CEOs, can show you how.The Great Client Partner is your guide to honing your soft skills to complement your technical expertise, making you ready to lead large teams, innovate, and build trust with your clients and internal and external stakeholders. When you master this rare combination of hard and soft skills, there's no limit to how far your career can go. This book is your key to successful client relationships and incredible upward career mobility.

A practical guide for providing exceptional client service Most advertising and marketing people would claim great client service is an elusive, ephemeral pursuit, not easily characterized by a precise skill set or inventory of responsibilities; this book and its author argue otherwise, claiming there are definable, actionable methods to the role, and provide guidance designed to achieve more effective work. Written by one of the industry's most knowledgeable client services executives, the book begins with a definition, then follows a path from an initial new business win to beginning, building, losing, then regaining trust with clients. It is a powerful source of counsel for those new to the business, for industry veterans who want to refresh or validate what they know, and for anyone in the middle of the journey to get better at what they do.

Finally, the book that all professionals frustrated with fleeting client loyalty and relentless price pressure have waited for—the first in-depth, guide to developing lasting client relationships. Millions of people in this country earn their livings by serving clients, and their numbers are growing every day. Unfortunately, far too few develop the skills and strategies needed to rise to the top in a world where clients have almost unlimited access to information and expertise. Clients for Life sets forth a comprehensive framework for how professionals in all fields can develop breakthrough relationships with their clients and enjoy enduring client loyalty. Supported by more than 100 case studies and wisdom gleaned from interviews with dozens of leading CEOs and prominent business advisors, Clients for Life identifies what clients really want and lays out the core qualities that distinguish the client advisor—an irreplaceable resource—from the expert for hire, a tradable commodity. Readers will learn, for example, to develop selfless independence, which tempers complete emotional, intellectual, and financial independence with a powerful commitment to client needs; to become deep generalists and overcome the narrow perspective caused by specialization; to systematically build lifelong trust; and to cultivate the power of synthesis—big-picture thinking—that is so highly valued by clients. Portraits of history's most famously successful advisors, including Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, and J. P. Morgan, underscore these timeless qualities that modern professionals need to develop to excel in today's competitive environment.

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.

As seen on The TODAY Show! “A godsend to anyone searching for, but struggling to find, true love in their lives.” —Kristin Neff, PhD, author of Self-Compassion "Empowering and compassionate, and its lessons are universal." —Publishers Weekly Real love starts with you. In order to attract a life partner and build a healthy intimate relationship, you must first become a good partner to yourself. This book offers twenty invaluable lessons that will help you explore and commit to your own emotional and psychological well-being so you can be ready, resilient, and confident in love. Many of us enter into romantic relationships full of expectation and hope, only to be sorely disappointed by the realization that the partner we’ve selected is a flawed human being with their own neuroses, history, and desires. Most relationships end because one or both people haven’t done the internal work necessary to develop self-awareness and take responsibility for their own experiences. We’ve all heard “You can’t love anyone unless you love yourself,” but amid life’s distractions and the myth of perfect, romantic love, how exactly do you do that? In Loving Bravely, psychologist, professor and relationship expert Alexandra H. Solomon introduces the idea of relational self-awareness, encouraging you to explore your personal history to gain an understanding of your own relational patterns, as well as your strengths and weaknesses in relationships. By doing so, you’ll learn what relationships actually require, beyond the fairytale notions of romance. And by maintaining a steady but gentle focus on yourself, you’ll build the best possible foundation for making a loving connection. By understanding your past relationship experiences, cultivating a strong sense of self-awareness, and determining what it is you really want in a romantic partner—you’ll be ready to find the healthy, lasting love your heart desires.

What Clients Really Want (And The S**t That Drives Them Crazy) is the essential insider's guide for advertising agencies on how account management can create great client/agency relationships. The first book on client/agency relationships to be written an ex-client, this book gives a true insider's guide as to how account management can stop client/agency relationships from breaking down and take those relationships from good to great. In this step-by-step guide you will discover: What simple actions you can take today to generate great relationships with your clients. How to gain a deeper understanding of the pressures your clients face and why this is so important. Practical day-to-day advice on how to master positive relationship building behaviours. The strong re-occurring themes that cause client relationships to fall apart and how you can avoid them by applying; oThe 9 essential behaviours to prevent damage to the client/agency relationship. oThe 5 essential behaviours to take your client/agency relationships from good to great. "This will be gold dust for client-servicing professionals... it's a great reminder of what you need to do to build a brilliant relationship with your clients and how to be a true partner. It's so important that you get to know them and care for their business and this book shows you what you need to do." Rick Kumar, Owner & Director, Moda Consult (Specialist Recruitment for Creative Agencies)"

In Customer Once, Client Forever, Buckingham presents a process to identify, create and maintain the relationship with the client using his 12 Lifetime Tools.

World-renowned client relationship authority shows you how to dramatically grow your business by mastering fourteen critical client development challenges Andrew Sobel, author of the international bestsellers Clients for Life and Power Questions, offers a proven,100-day plan for conquering 14 tough client development challenges and growing your client base in any market conditions. He’s encapsulated 25 years of unique research, including personal interviews with over 8000 top executives and successful rainmakers, into a practical roadmap for winning more new clients and growing your existing relationships. You’ll learn specific strategies to move confidently and predictably from a first meeting to a signed contract, and discover the agenda-setting techniques that create a steady stream of sole-source business. You’ll master the art of reframing client requests, leading to broader, higher-impact engagements. You’ll dramatically sharpen your ability to ask the powerful questions that can transform your client relationships. And, you’ll learn to develop advisory relationships with influential C-suite executives. Andrew illustrates each weekly challenge with real-life examples drawn from thousands of executive meetings. He shares success strategies from having grown and led three highly successful professional service businesses. Andrew has taught these strategies to over 50,000 professionals around the world, and they’re now available to you in this highly readable, portable masterclass. Whether you are early in your career and need a comprehensive guide to grow your client base from the ground up or are a seasoned practitioner who wants to accelerate your business growth, It Starts With Clients will take you to the next level.

What if the people hiring agencies were more curious as to how to be the best possible client and reap the rewards of that excellence? What if there were some practical ways to help them?

Learn the secrets of how recurring revenue is driven at expert firms like BCG, KPMG, EY, and more Never Say Sell: How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships explains how to scale individual engagements into long-term business relationships. Cowritten by Tom McMakin, the coauthor of How Clients Buy and expert in account development, and colleague Jacob Parks, this book provides insights from key rainmakers at firms like Accenture, IBM, and more into how they drive growth from existing relationships. Never Say Sell is a business development guide for professional service providers like consultants, accountants, and lawyers, whether they are sole proprietors or members of account teams tasked with expanding key accounts. Doing good work with existing clients is not enough to have them come back to you again and again. You must do more. This book explores the techniques and methods that leading professional service providers use to add value, cross sell, and drive recurring revenue from existing engagements. Never Say Sell will help you turn one-and-done clients into some of your most exciting and lucrative relationships. It is a must-have for any professional who benefits from repeat business.