Power Questions to Build Clients for Life

Nine Strategies for Success

Andrew Sobel

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781118653296
• eBook ISBN: 9781118657133
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Use the power of questions to deepen and grow your client relationships

The right question can shift a conversation from the analytical to the emotional, from the details to the big picture, and from the past to the future. The result? Deeper client knowledge, more intimate relationships, and a clear understanding of how you can add more value. Power Questions to Build Clients for Life shows how to use strategic questions to implement nine essential clients-for-life strategies. You'll learn:

• How to select the right clients to begin with
• Growth strategies to broaden your relationships
• Techniques for building personal relationships with your clients
• Powerful questions to help you connect in the C-Suite
• Ten questions you must ask your clients every year in order to assess your relationship health

Power Questions to Build Clients for Life gives you both the strategies and the key questions to develop trusted partnerships with your most important clients.

Chapter 1

You Can Build Big Relationships with Little Questions

The auditorium is packed. The company's top 200 executives have flown in from all over the world for their annual senior management retreat. That morning I have given a speech, and I am invited to stay for another hour to hear the CEO's talk.

Standing at the podium, the CEO, Roger, has concluded his overview of the company's strategic plan. “We have about 20 minutes left. I'd be happy to take questions and have some discussion.” After a pause, a few hands go up.

“Roger, can you go back to that slide on the forecast?” one of the seated executives asks. “What are the assumptions about GDP growth for next year?”

Another question follows: “Can you say more about the field reorganization that we implemented last spring? I'm not sure people fully understand it. I think there's still some lingering concerns about the way it was done.”

Roger is being forced to review old decisions. He's being asked to parse the fine details of his financials.

And more: “Roger, can you go back over the decision to outsource our benefits management?”

The backward-looking, nitpicking questions go on for another 15 minutes. Roger keeps checking the clock on the wall. I can see his frustration steadily rise. I raise my hand. I don't know Roger very well—we've met a few times. But I'd like to build a relationship with him.

“Yes—Andrew. You have a question?”

I do. And it's a genuine one. I want to know what is really on Roger's mind. What motivates him. “As you look ahead to the next year or two in your business,” I ask, “what are you personally most excited about?”

Roger looks up. He's been hunching his shoulders, but now he stands up straight, stretching his large, six-and-a-half-foot frame. He smiles, and takes a deep breath. “Well,” he begins. “Well, there is something.” He describes an initiative that was not prominently featured in the formal plan. It's clearly the thing he is most enthusiastic about. The program he cares most about. He waxes on, now upbeat and energetic in his speech.

As we leave the auditorium, I walk with the crowd toward the door to the street. Suddenly I feel a large hand slap my back. Really—like a baseball mitt, whacking my shoulder. I turn around, ready to confront the perpetrator. It's Roger, the CEO. He is striding by me, heading out to jump in a car.

“Andrew, that was an excellent question. Thank you.” He's now past me, heading to the exit. He looks back and continues talking: “A very revealing question.” I am so surprised I can't manage anything more substantial than a smile and an “Oh, sure.”

“Call me,” were his final words as he hurried away.

And I do call him. And that is the beginning of an ongoing relationship with his company. The catalyst was a simple question that's little yet big. It was a question that shifted the conversation from the analytical to the emotional, from the details to the big picture, from the past to the future.

That day, I wasn't particularly smart or clever. I didn't try and show off my expertise. I just asked a question.

Chapter 2

The Secret to Building Clients for Life

People often ask me, “What's the one, single key to developing great client relationships—to becoming a trusted advisor?” I wish I had a magical answer to that question. Sometimes I think I ought to. After all, I've interviewed hundreds of executives about their most trusted relationships. I've studied many of the best professionals in the world at building clients for life, and I've written five books on the subject.

But it's like asking, “What's the secret to raising children?” or “What's the one thing that makes a marriage last?” Any single, all-encompassing answer you come up with is incomplete, and in and of itself could even be harmful. “Endless love!” could be a response to these two questions, but it's not so simple. We all know that love without any truth can actually ruin children and marriages!

I can tell you what most clients want. First, they want you to deliver. Second, they want someone they can trust. Third, they want value for money. And fourth, they want to work with someone they like. Those four things are nearly universal.

But knowing what clients want doesn't actually tell you how to give it to them. And even if you give your client all four of these things, the relationship doesn't always last. No, there's more.

I'll boil it down as much as I can. Here's the secret: You build clients for life through an ongoing process of getting to know your clients' businesses better and better; adding value again and again; and developing trusted, personal relationships with them. As you do this, you successfully confront a series of challenges. These include developing relationships at the senior levels in the organization, overcoming the inevitable crises, engaging in reflective client planning, and assessing the health of your relationship each year.

One of your main tools for accomplishing all these things is thoughtful questions. That's why they are the centerpiece of this short book.

In Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others, Jerry Panas and I set out a manifesto for how to use questions to transform your relationships at work and at home. The reaction from readers has been overwhelmingly positive, and many have asked us for more questions that are specific to developing client relationships through their entire lifecycle.

In response I've written two companion ebooks to help you acquire new clients and then develop those relationships for life. In this one, Power Questions to Build Clients for Life, I focus on how to use questions to deepen your understanding of your clients and their businesses and to help implement nine important client development strategies. In the second ebook, Power Questions to Win the Sale, I illustrate how to use questions to overcome nine critical sales challenges. Together, these two companion ebooks represent the specific application of the Power Questions approach to building long-term client relationships.

Chapter 3

Strategy One: Pick the Right Clients

Five hundred years ago, the great Italian author Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, in The Prince, “A prince who is not himself wise can never be well-advised.” It's as true today as it was then. Just substitute “client” for prince.

Developing clients for life starts with selecting the right clients to invest in. We've all had a go-round with that weak or insecure client who treated us like a vendor and distrusted us—and then paid the bills late, as well. It can be a nightmare to have the wrong client. Alternatively, it's a pleasure, even a dream, to have the right client to begin with!

To make sure you're working with the right clients, you must ask yourself four important questions:

1. Is this the right client organization for you?

2. Is this the right issue for you to work on?

3. Are you working with the right executive at the client?

4. Will the relationship also create value for you?

Start by writing down a list of all of the clients in your portfolio. For each client, answer these four questions by going through the following detailed list. Based on your answers to the questions in the list, divide them into A, B, and C categories. “A” clients are your highest priority—the ones you want to invest in growing. “B” clients are also valuable and need attention, but you can't afford to invest in them in the same way as your “A” list. Your “C” clients are, frankly, a question mark. Can they grow to become “B” clients? Is there a compelling reason to keep them over the long term?

Ask yourself: What can you do to better serve clients in the A group? Could any B clients be up-tiered into the top group? And, should you be pruning some of the names in the C category?

Questions to Help You Select the Right Clients

How do you know a client is right for you? The precise criteria will vary from firm to firm, but here are some of the important questions you should ask yourself:

Right Client

1. Is it the right size organization, given your strategic focus?

2. Is the client financially viable and able to pay you?

3. Will this client be able to invest in your services over the long term, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Chapter 1: You Can Build Big Relationships with Little Questions
• Chapter 2: The Secret to Building Clients for Life
• Chapter 3: Strategy One: Pick the Right Clients
• Chapter 4: Strategy Two: Invest to Grow
• Chapter 5: Strategy Three: Get to Know Your Clients as People
• Chapter 6: Strategy Four: Build Relationships at the Top
• Chapter 7: Strategy Five: Engage in Client Account Planning
• Chapter 8: Strategy Six: Use a Crisis to Deepen Your Relationship
• Chapter 9: Strategy Seven: Add More Value
• Chapter 10: Strategy Eight: Multiply Your Relationships
• Chapter 11: Strategy Nine: Assess Your Relationship Health
• Chapter 12: Four Questions for You
• Excerpt from Power Questions
• About the Author
• Other Wiley Books by Andrew Sobel