Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty

by Andrew Sobel

• ISBN13: 9780471406167
• ISBN10: 0471406163
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Professionals who work with clients or large accounts can create lifetimerelationships based on these well-researched secrets. Based drawing fromextensive interviews with client executives, Making Rain offers a series of provocative insights on how to shed the expert-for-hire label and developlong-term advisory relationships. Exploding the popular myth of the "Rainmaker," a dated and dysfunctional figure that clients no longer welcome, Andrew Sobel argues that any professional can learn to "make rain" on an ongoing basis with existing clients by developing a special set of skills, attitudes, and strategies. These innovative tips and techniques from a recognized leader in the field of professional services will enable any consultant, salesperson, or service professional to create enduring client loyalty.

Table of Contents

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.