All For One

Corporate clients are demanding more value from their external advisors, and consolidating their business around a smaller number of firms. These trends are forcing a variety of service providers—from consulting firms to large banks—to confront a series of difficult challenges:

• How do we create an ‘all-for-one, one-for-all’ culture in which the whole is greater than the sum-of-the-parts and we succeed in leveraging our global network to deliver value to clients?"
• How do we mobilize the right people, resources, and ideas—across a multitude of organizational and geographic boundaries—into each and every client relationship?"
• How do we evolve from a trusted advisor to a trusted partner and build multi-year, institutional relationships?

All for One answers these questions with an innovative and comprehensive model for developing enduring, institutional client relationships—what Andrew Sobel refers to as Level 6 Trusted Client Partnerships. It offers readers ten specific strategies that are thoroughly supported by case studies, best practices from leading firms, and implementation tools. The individual professional is principally responsible for five of these strategies, while the firm—the institution—must support and drive the other five. When you successfully execute against all ten of these building blocks, you develop long-term, professional-client partnerships that provide great value to the client and high levels of personal satisfaction and profitability for the service provider.

Introduction: Transforming Your Client Relationships 1

Part I A Road Map For Building Trusted Client Partnerships

1 Reaching Level 6: Trusted Client Partner 13

2 Employing 10 Integrated Strategies 25

Part II The Five Individual Strategies

3 Strategy One: Becoming an Agenda Setter 35

4 Strategy Two: Developing Relationship Capital 59

5 Strategy Three: Engaging New Clients 85

6 Strategy Four: Institutionalizing Client Relationships 111

7 Strategy Five: Adding Multiple Layers of Value 131

Part III The Five Institutional Strategies

8 Strategy Six: Targeting the Right Clients 161

9 Strategy Seven: Building a Client Leadership Pipeline 173

10 Strategy Eight: Promoting Collaboration 199

11 Strategy Nine: Listening to Clients 237

12 Strategy Ten: Creating a Unique Client Experience 247

Part IV Frequently Asked Questions and Conclusion

13 Answers to the Most Commonly Asked Questions about Building Client Relationships 267

14 Conclusion 295

Index 299

ANDREW SOBEL is a leading authority on the skills and strategies for building enduring client relationships. He is the author of Making Rain and coauthor of Clients for Life, and his work has appeared in a variety of publications including the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review. As President of Andrew Sobel Advisors, he helps organizations build lifelong client partnerships. His clients range from major public companies to leading professional service firms. A former senior vice president at Gemini Consulting, he earned his MBA at Dartmouth’s Tuck School. To learn more or contact Andrew directly, please visit www.AndrewSobel.com.

Corporate clients are putting relentless pressure on their professional advisors. They want more value and better service. They are consolidating the number of firms that they are willing to work with. They are scrutinizing, more than ever, the fees they pay.

To respond, service firms must turn individual relationships into broad-based, institutional ones and build a collaborative culture that mobilizes the right people, ideas, and resources—from across the organization—into each client relationship. The goal is to build a trusted partnership that adds value, reduces risk, and creates stability for both your clients and your firm.

Based on a five-year study of leading firms in professional services and other advice-based businesses, relationship authority Andrew Sobel has created a comprehensive guide to developing what he calls “Level 6” clients—those flagship relationships that are broad, deep, and endure for many years. In Sobel’s first book, Clients for Life, he laid out a clear path to take you from expert-for-hire to trusted client advisor. All for One takes you and your firm to the next level—trusted partner—with practical advice illustrated by more than 100 examples of best practices from the world’s top services firms.

All for One presents ten essential strategies for building an all-for-one culture and systematically growing your client relationships. Incorporating a wealth of detailed, tactical advice, these powerful strategies include:

Institutionalizing relationships—employing five growth pathways to expand existing clients

Building a client leadership pipeline—developing and supporting relationship managers who can lead trusted client partnerships for your firm

Promoting collaboration—creating an all-for-one, client-centered culture where people and ideas easily cross organizational boundaries

Adding multiple layers of value—tapping into six sources of value leverage for clients

Employing rich examples from Booz Allen Hamilton, Lloyds Banking Group, Ernst & Young, and dozens of other leading firms, All for One is a definitive guide for professionals who aspire to trusted partner status with their clients. All for One is thought provoking and actionable, making it a valuable roadmap for building trust and mutual benefit between clients and advisors.
—Ralph W. Shrader, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Booz Allen Hamilton

In All for One, Andrew Sobel takes an important, further step in defining great client relationships by eloquently describing how to build trusted partnerships.
—Sir Winfried Bischoff, Chairman, Citigroup

All for One is a goldmine of best practices. Five years’ scrutiny of 50 major service-based relationships—combined with the author’s deep expertise on what makes service firms successful—make Andrew Sobel’s guidance accessible, credible, and invaluable.
—Edward E. Nusbaum, Chief Executive Officer, Grant Thornton LLP