Articles
Explore over 350 articles that will help you grow your client relationships and improve your personal effectiveness.
Why Relationships Go Bad–and Nine Ways to Revitalize Them
What percentage of the time you devote to marketing and sales is directed towards growing existing clients versus winning new prospects? If you’re like many professionals, you get an adrenaline rush when you are in pursuit of an attractive new client prospect. You probably feel that new business naturally flows from existing relationships on the […]
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Four Things Every Client Wants in a Relationship
What do clients really want? I’ve interviewed and surveyed thousands of executives over the last decade about what they look for in a relationship with an external provider or advisor. Each client is unique, of course, and looks for somewhat different things in each specific transaction or engagement. But if you boil it down, there […]
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Six Essential Roles You Should Play with Client Executives
Have you ever gotten a call from a client who said, “I just want to run something by you”? Perhaps on a different day that same client asked you, “How’s my team doing?” On yet a different occasion he or she may have pushed you to talk about what you’re seeing out in the marketplace and how other companies are dealing with the same issue. You may not explicitly think about it this way, but in fact you play quite different roles with your clients. I have identified the six most common and important ones. Each is valuable in its own right. By recognizing these roles and cultivating them intentionally with your clients, you will add more value and dramatically strengthen your relationships.
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The Company We Keep: Is It Hurting or Helping Our Reputation?
Former CIA head and four-star general David Petreus is man of extraordinary accomplishments and service to his country. And so is General John Allen. But both their reputations have been diminished by their friendship with Jill Kelley in Tampa, Florida.
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Misconceptions About Using Questions in the Sales Process
Advice abounds on "asking good questions" during the sales process. I believe much of it is confusing or even misleading. My clients and readers have enjoyed Power Questions, but have asked for more detailed guidance about the use of questions specifically in sales and business development. In response, I have just published a short ebook entitled Power Questions to Win the Sale. It's available in all ebook reader formats. My next few blogs are based on it. Here are some examples of what I mean by misleading advice about asking questions:
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How to Get More Leads from Your Network
"How do I get more leads out of my network?" That’s a question I get asked a lot these days. Everyone has lists of contacts. Everyone has past clients. Some of them may need what you offer—right now. But how do you make the connection in a way doesn’t feel like you’re a door-to-door salesman? How do you get someone interested in having a meeting with you? (The quick answer is your answer to the same question: What gets you interested in meeting with someone who offers a product or service?) Addressing this challenge is not as difficult as it may seem. In this newsletter I’ve laid out a very straightforward set of principles and strategies that will help you create new leads out of your network. First, there are four principles that should guide you:
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Strong–and Weak–Questions to Win the Sale
Not all questions are created equal. I recently wrote two short ebooks, distributed through my publisher John Wiley & Sons, which go into very specific detail about thoughtful questions you can use at every stage of the sales and client development process (Power Questions to Win the Sale and Power Questions to Build Clients for Life). Here are my reflections about "strong" and "weak" questions that you can use in your business development efforts.
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How to Become More Empathetic
How empathetic are you? Empathy is a fundamental quality of great trusted advisors, and it’s worth engaging in a moment of self-reflection to see if and how you can improve your empathy. Here are nine ways you can improve your empathy. In this post, I share the first five:
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