Making Rain: The Secrets Of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty

Professionals who work with clients or large accounts can create lifetime relationships based on these well-researched secrets. Based drawing from extensive interviews with client executives, Making Rain offers a series of provocative insights on how to shed the expert-for-hire label and develop long-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.

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.

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.