thought leadership Archives - Andrew Sobel

Earning Clients for Life as a Trusted Advisor

Competition, commoditization, client sophistication, and transparent markets mean that few services can be truly differentiated in their own right. Strong, enduring client relationships, therefore, are the lifeblood of most organizations. Long term relationships serve another key function in today’s tumultuous markets: they reduce risk for both clients and service providers. It’s not easy, however, to […]

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Your Week 13 Challenge: Develop a C-Suite Relationship

You’re in the home stretch of the 100-Day Client Growth Challenge–just one more week after this! This week, you’ll apply strategies to help build a relationship with a senior executive by adding more “value for time” in your meetings. To complete this week’s challenge, be sure to read or listen to Week 13: Build Senior […]

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Week 2 Challenge: Get Recognized

[Please note: this article, and the rest of the articles in this series, together constitute the 15 emails in the It Starts with Clients Client Growth Challenge. Please subscribe here to receive them on a weekly basis over the next 100 days] Which comes first–recognition for being really good at something, or relationships that lead to your being […]

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My best blogs of 2014: 12 Ideas to help you thrive in 2015

My best writing and newest ideas are regularly featured in my weekly blog. I invite you to subscribe, here, to conveniently receive these fresh strategies by email. Just enter your email address in the form under my photo in the left column. Here’s what you may be missing: Below, you can review 12 of my best […]

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Building Your Independent Practice: From Startup To Market Leadership

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Blog and Twitter Content for Power Questions

Potential Content for Blogging and Tweeting about Power Questions Potential Content for Social Media If you’ve ever wished you had just the right question to ask a prospect, client, or your boss, you’re not alone. We tend to believe that being clever and quick on our feet is what impresses and engages people. Actually, according […]

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Book Review: “Rainmaking Conversations”

This is an engaging, well-crafted guide to improving your selling effectiveness. Rainmaking Conversations is a new book on selling services by Mike Schultz and John Doerr. Schultz and Doerr run a publication called RainToday as well as a sales consulting firm, and they authored a previous book called Professional Services Marketing. They have a done […]

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Beatles Trivia

1. What was the name of the Beatles’ original drummer? Pete Best a. Extra credit: Why was he dropped from the group? The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, didn’t think he was a very good drummer—specifically, that he had trouble keeping time. Beyond that, Pete did not fit in stylistically with the other three. For example, […]

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Ideas Are Everywhere

The most common refrain I hear from client executives is a desire for more new ideas and perspectives from their service providers. In most markets, the core products and services that firms offer are nearly identical, and therefore outperforming the competition in ideas, innovation, and creativity can be a meaningful source of differentiation. It’s hard […]

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