All for One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships

"Andrew Sobel is a consultant of consultants. His insights have been simmered on a base of tens of thousands of consultant hours both as an executive at a large corporation and as trusted advisor to dozens of CEOs and hundreds of senior executives. He is insighful, able to paint the big picture, but always brings it down to well-written, practical advice of what to do with the insights." - Andrés T. Tapia, author of "The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity."

Andrew Sobel's book comes at a perfect time, especially for professional service firms. When economic recessions inevitably strike, firms in the knowledge industry (including accounting, architecture, engineering, law, and a host of consulting specialties) find themselves re-examining the role of their marketing and business development infrastructures. Our recent economic downturn is also coupled with dramatic shifts in the way clients are influenced by social media. I applaud Sobel for addressing many of the issues that will help these firms better integrate their marketing and business development functions into the practitioner side of their firms. The result of his practical advice on how to build enduring client relationships? Greater market share for the professional firms, and a more robust value proposition for the clients.

Those who have read the novel, Three Musketeers, already know that its author, Alexander Dumas pere, took advantage of every appropriate opportunity to have his principal characters (d'Artagnan and his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis) proclaim "One for all, all for one!" Andrew Sobel had that motto in mind when selecting a title for this book because it is in this same spirit of solidarity and comradeship that he introduces and then explains ten strategies "for building trusted client partners," for creating what Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba characterize as "customer evangelists." In an exceptionally informative Introduction, Sobel briefly acknowledges six important trends and pressures that should guide and inform relationship-building strategies, briefly reviews three epochs of client relationships, and then provides a "quick sampling" of several practices (e. g. enhancing dialogue with clients exemplified by Bain & Company and customizing the relationship experience exemplified by WPP) that he will examine when presenting ten strategies for building what he characterizes as "trusted client partner ships." Sobel carefully organizes the material that follows within four Parts: First he presents case studies of two "extraordinarily successful trusted client partnerships" and defines the six levels of professional relationships before summarizes the aforementioned ten strategies; next, he rigorously examines the first five strategies that are primarily (not exclusively) the responsibility of an individual professional; then he rigorously examines the second five strategies that are institutional and require specific commitment and support of senior management; and finally, he poses and answers the 17 most commonly asked questions about how to build long-term client relationships. This is a clever idea because the Q & As enable him to review key points after completing his narrative; also, Part IV facilitates, indeed expedites frequent review by his readers later. At this point in the review, it seems appropriate to share two questions I always ask when meeting with a prospective consulting client to discuss its client relationships: "How many `customer evangelists' does your company now have?" and then a separate but related question, "How many of your other customers are not `customer evangelists'...but COULD be?" Presumably Sobel agrees with me that in many (most?) companies, there is a tendency (albeit unintentional) to take customers for granted, to neglect them, with the inevitable results that (a) there is less frequent direct contact, (b) a diminished understanding of their needs (especially unmet needs) and concerns, and (c) increased vulnerability to competitor initiatives. None of this would happen if the relationships were "trusted client partnerships" that are steadfast but resilient and mutually beneficial. Hence the importance of executing strategies such as those Sobel recommends. After identifying the components of tr

So many books on networking and client relationships have flooded the market in the last five years that I am a real skeptic that there's much new to say. We don't need to be told that relationships are important and that we have to build trust with clients. All for One is different, and in it Sobel takes a new slant. It has so many good ideas that it's hard to summarize everything in one sentence, but if I had to it would be this: Service firms must get better at building long-term, institutional partnerships with their clients; and to do this they need to develop an interconnected set of individual and organizational capabilities. The book lays out what these capabilities are in about ten core chapters, and I learned something important in every one of them. Sobel's writing is clear and well organized, and his examples are excellent. The chapter on value is especially interesting, and it includes a variety of examples of professional firms that have developed innovative ways of generating new ideas for clients. His chapter on collaboration in services firms is also fascinating. It starts by looking at the evolution of human collaboration, and then sets out a clear and convincing framework of three drivers of collaboration. His examples are wide-ranging and intriguing, ranging from the Beatles (the whole was greater than the sum-of-the-parts) to the US Military Joint Forces Command (getting different service branches to work together seamlessly). I give it five stars without hesitation. If you want to go from selling small projects to building multi-million dollar client relationships, this book shows you how.

Sobel's new book, All for One, is a comprehensive guide to building large-scale client relationships--to moving beyond trusted advisor to trusted partner. I am a big fan of Sobel's previous books, especially Clients for Life, and All for One does not disappoint--in fact it sets the benchmark for how you develop the people and create the organization required to develop and grow what he calls "level 6" trusted partnerships. The premise of the book is that the organization that surrounds the rainmaker is as or more important than the rainmaker himself, and that to build trusted client partnerships you must develop a highly collaborative culture that takes a long-term view of client development. Sobel notes that many large companies are reducing the number of consulting firms, law firms, banks, etc. that they are willing to deal with, and they are demanding more value from these service providers. Advisory firms, on the other hand, have developed such complex organizations that they are having trouble creating a whole that is greater than the sum-of-the-parts. By getting the right people and ideas to flow easily into each of your client relationships, and institutionalizing them, you create value for both sides. Sobel sets out ten main strategies in the book. They include becoming an agenda setter, building individual relationship capital, engaging effectively with c-level executives, going from individual to institutional relationships, adding multiple layers of value, building a client leadership pipeline to develop and support relationship managers, building a culture of collaboration, and creating a truly unique client experience. Each chapter is very logically presented, practical, and contains a great deal of fresh material--with few exceptions this is a highly original, rather than derivative, book. The last chapter is excellent, and it lays out a series of commonly asked questions, with answers, about building client relationships (ranging from "How do I make more time for long-term relationship building?" to "How can I build relationships with procurement managers?"). What really brought the book to life and made it so useful for me are the real-life examples, quotes, and short case studies. Sobel has done his homework, and he cites best practices from a wide variety of companies including well-known ones like Booz Allen, Bain, Ernst & Young, IBM, Lloyds Banking Group, as well as smaller and highly innovative firms that readers may not be familiar with such as ZS Associates, Parthenon Group, and ERM. If you work with clients, this book really should be on your bookshelf.