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Explore over 350 articles that will help you grow your client relationships and improve your personal effectiveness.
Seven Relationship Lies—and Rules to Replace Them on Valentine’s Day
I usually write strictly about professional relationships, but today, I want to share seven Valentine’s Day lies—and the relationship rules to replace them. Our culture promotes many misleading ideas about what makes for successful personal or romantic relationships. Popular concepts like the need to “just be yourself” or “move on if your needs aren’t being […]
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How to Prioritize Your Client Opportunities
All that glitters is not gold One of my clients proudly served a leading Fortune-500 company. It was part of their key account program and often mentioned as a success story. Viewed from afar, it was a showcase relationship that generated significant annual revenues. However, when I reviewed the account with them, I realized that […]
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20 Opportunities to Grow Your Client Relationships
Are your client relationships growing, staying the same, or shrinking? How much influence do you really have over the direction they take? The answer to this second question is, I believe, a whole lot. While many factors influence whether or not a relationship grows, you and your team can have an enormous impact on the […]
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12 Indicators of Relationship Decline
The CEO of a Fortune-100 company I was advising got an unexpected call from the CEO of their largest technology supplier. The technology company CEO said he was going to be in New York City the following week and wanted to meet up to review the relationship. They scheduled the day and time, and my […]
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Eight Strategies to Grow Your Business in Any Market Conditions
One of my clients, a global consulting firm, wanted to build a relationship with a Fortune-50 company in the Midwest. This company never used consultants, and my client had virtually no preexisting relationships with their management. However, my client was determined to win them over. They asked a senior partner to spend most of his […]
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Nine Reasons Why You Lose Clients – And What to Do About It
The playwright Oscar Wilde defined a gentleman as someone who “is never unintentionally rude.” Likewise, you never want to have a client relationship end unintentionally and without a sound reason. Unfortunately, relationships often avoidably come to an end. Clients usually just vote with their feet and don’t explain to you why they are not giving you any […]
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Want More Share of Wallet? Grow Your Share of Mind
Everyone would like more of their client’s business—more “wallet share.” But few are willing to invest the time and effort to do what it actually takes to earn that additional share of their client’s expenditures. The strategy to gain more wallet share often consists of introducing some colleagues who then pitch their solutions, without establishing […]
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Seven Ingredients that Make You Truly Authoritative in Your Clients’ Eyes
Do Your Clients See You as an Authority? One of the greatest accolades you can receive from a client is the declaration that you are an authority in your field. Even better still is to hear you are a “leading authority” or even “the leading authority.” But don’t take a simplistic view of the route to getting […]
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What to Do When Clients Are Unresponsive
One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons was drawn in 1993 by Robert Mankoff. It shows an executive at his desk, fielding a telephone call from someone who wants to meet him. “No, Thursday’s out” he replies to the caller, adding, “How about never? Is never good for you?” Today, that cartoon hits especially close to home. […]
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