Articles

8 Strategies for Staying in Touch When There’s No Business

The Enduring Power of Culture—and Chutzpah: Duff McDonald’s new book on McKinsey

The Firm: The Story of McKinsey is an in-depth profile of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. It was written by journalist Duff McDonald. Many terrible books have been written about the consulting industry, mostly by people who worked for a few years at a big consulting firm and then decided to write a “tell-all” […]

Six Laws for Connecting with the C-Suite

By Andrew Sobel This article is drawn from the new book by Andrew Sobel and Jerry Panas, Power Relationships: 26 Irrefutable Laws for Building Extraordinary Relationships.     THERE are unseen but powerful laws that determine the success or failure of client relationships. Just as an airplane must respect the laws of physics in order […]

Six Powerful Words to Grow Your Business in the New Year

The first word is Why? The first word is Why Every day of the next year will be gift for each of us. That’s why my first word for 2014 is “Why?” When used in the right way and at the right time, “Why?” is one of the most powerful words in our vocabulary. This […]

Do You Offer a Truly Unique Client Experience?

How would you rate the overall client experience that you offer? Is it: 1. Below average (or perhaps very uneven)? 2. Competitive? 3. Truly differentiated versus your competition? Would you like your clients to say, “Working with you really is different”? How valuable would that be, from a retention and referral perspective? In the consumer world, […]

How to Turn the First Sale into a Long-Term Relationship

For many professionals, the toughest part of building long-term client relationships is getting the client in the first place. But moving from the initial sale to an ongoing relationship has its own challenges. In fact, it requires careful planning and thought—starting on the very first day of your new relationship. You need to follow these […]

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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