Andrew Sobel

Making Rain

The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Making Rain offers professional service personnel such as lawyers and accountants a series of practical suggestions on how to get beyond the label of "expert-for-hire" and develop long-term advisory relationships. The author explodes the myth of the rare "Rainmaker" who brings in and keeps large clients, and instead argues that any professional can learn to "make rain" using existing clients by developing a particular set of skills and utilizing certain strategies which lead to long-term loyalty. This is the ideal book for keeping clients for life.

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Learn to build client loyalty that lasts a lifetime

In this provocative and insightful book, client relationship authority Andrew Sobel sets out a series of innovative, practical strategies that any service professional, sales executive, or marketer can use to develop lifelong client loyalty. Based on groundbreaking client research, Making Rain contains the secrets that will allow you to develop a steady stream of new business with your existing clients on a day-in, day-out basis.

Clients are loyal to professionals who add value, build personal trust, and go the extra mile. Making Rain shows readers, step by step, how to deliver on these three ingredients of client loyalty at every major stage of the relationship. First, it illustrates how to break out of the expert-for-hire label and consistently win repeat business. You'll learn about the essential attributes of extraordinary client advisors; the six factors that create immediate personal rapport with a new client; and the nine breakthrough strategies that can distinguish you and your organization at the very start of a relationship.

Sobel then illustrates the growth strategies you'll need to break out of "steady supplier" relationships and truly become part of your client's inner circle. You'll understand, for example, why a singular focus on meeting client expectations is actually dangerous, and how to identify the next set of client needs. In the final section of Making Rain, you'll learn how to sustain your relationships over time and develop a true partnership with your clients; how to manage client relationships through turbulent times; and how to build an entire firm that consistently makes rain. Throughout, Sobel uses over 100 engaging and often humorous case histories and examples, and he offers fascinating profiles of leading historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, the Rothschild bankers, and Benjamin Franklin, who exemplified the ability to create a lifelong network of loyal clients and colleagues. Praise for Making Rain

"An entertaining and practical guide to building lifelong client loyalty, Making Rain is profoundly insightful as well as motivating. A must-read for all professionals who aspire to distance themselves from their competitors by growing client relationships that are stronger, deeper, and more valuable-for them and for their clients."
-Dale Gifford, Chief Executive, Hewitt Associates

"Few understand the advice business like Andrew Sobel, and his well-written book, Making Rain, is overflowing with insight and sage advice on how to create value for clients and earn their enduring loyalty."
-Jim Robbins, Chief Executive, Cox Communications

"This is a book that is both fascinating and fun. Brilliantly written, meticulous in detail, and penetrating in analysis-anyone who wants to master the art of being a professional advisor will benefit from it."
-Sir Brian Pitman, Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley and former chairman, Lloyds TSB Group

"In a world where managers seem to churn over more frequently than inventories, Andrew Sobel's new book, Making Rain, is a welcome respite, a savvy guide to lasting client and customer relationships."
-Stan Davis, author, It's Alive and Blur

"Making Rain appeals to everyone in business, not just in professional services. Andrew Sobel highlights how the interaction of relationships, longevity of trust, innovative ideas, and expertise combine to produce results and long-term loyalty. An excellent read that is full of insights."
-Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman, Citigroup Europe

"In Making Rain, Andrew Sobel demonstrates a deep understanding of how resilient client relationships are formed and why some professionals are pulled in closer and closer by their clients while others, just as skilled technically, do not establish such relationships. His description of the attributes of extraordinary advisors is a must-read for leaders of professional services firms."
-Steven B. Pfeiffer, Chairman, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley & Sons
• 1. Auflage
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 31. Januar 2003
• Deutsch, Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 157mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 540g
• ISBN-13: 9780471264590
• ISBN-10: 0471264598
• Artikelnr.: 11481841

Autorenporträt

ANDREW SOBEL is a leading authority on the skills and strategies required to build enduring client relationships. A noted business strategist and popular speaker, his clients have included such prominent companies as Citigroup, Cox Communications, Fulbright & Jaworski, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Hewitt Associates. He is coauthor of the acclaimed book Clients for Life, as well as dozens of articles on relationship building and loyalty. Formerly a senior vice president of one of the world's largest management consulting firms, he is now President of Andrew Sobel Advisors, a strategy consulting and professional development firm. He earned his BA at Middlebury College and holds an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction: Learning to Make Rain All of the Time. PART I: BREAKING
THROUGH AS AN EXPERT. The Loyalty Equation: Three Factors That Determine
Your Client's Loyalty. Are You an Extraordinary Advisor? Breakthrough
Strategies for Experts. Building Trust in the First Ten Minutes. More
Important than Your 401(k): Building Your Relationship Capital. Benjamin
Franklin's Secret Weapon. Why a Client Might Like You. The Myth of Meeting
Client Expectations. Leonardo da Vinci: Why Lutes and Madonnas Matter.
Finding the Hidden Creases: Influencing Your Clients. Part One Summary: Are
You Breaking Through as an Expert? PART II: MOVING INTO THE INNER CIRCLE. I
Love My Guru...and Other Client Pitfalls. The Relationship Masters. The
Doubting Mind. The Deep Generalist and the Branded Expert. How to Identify
Client Needs. The Power of Size: Developing Large, Multi-Year Client
Relationships. The Right Foot: Four Ways to Start a Relationship and
Position It for the Long Term. Five Ways to Grow Your Client Relationships.
Are Clients Meeting Your Expectations? Part Two Summary: Are You Moving
into the Inner Circle? PART III: SUSTAINING RELATIONSHIPS YEAR AFTER YEAR.
Sustaining and Multiplying. Merlin: Working a Little Magic with Your
Clients. Five Steps to New Business with Old Clients. The Rothschild
Bankers: The Power of Unique Capabilities. Cultivating the Attitude of
Independent Wealth. Managing Client Relationships during Uncertain Times.
Developing Relationships with Foreign Clients: Try Not to Commit These
Gaffes. Becoming a Firm That Makes Rain: How Great Organizations Build
Clients for Life. Part Three Summary: Are You Sustaining Your Relationships
Year after Year? PART V: GETTING STARTED: A SELF-ASSESSMENT. Do You Have
the Ability to Make Rain? Two Assessment Tools for Individuals and
Organizations. A Pantheon of Client Advisors. Notes. Index.

Rezensionen

"In this straightforward manual, he gives practical strategies to help leaders of service firms and large corporations alike become indispensable advisers..." (Publishers Weekly, February 2003)