Client Relationship Management

EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT PUTS THE CLIENT AT THE CENTER OF YOUR ORGANIZATION

Client relationship management is the ensemble of strategies, processes, and systems that help you develop clients for life. Read through the questions under each of the four topics, and consider how you would answer them for you and your firm.

Watch Andrew’s talk about the 5 pitfalls
of Relationship Management

If you’d like to access a variety of free resources on client relationship management, click on any of the headlines. These will link you to a section on Andrew Sobel’s website which contains over 40 best practice checklists, articles, and videos that will help you improve your relationship management practices.

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: THE BIG PICTURE
  Questions to consider:
  1. How would your clients like you to manage your relationship with them? Have you asked them?
  2. Have you given your relationship managers (partners, MDs, account executives) authority and resources commensurate with the responsibilities they bear?
  3. Are you as focused on creating a supportive organization around your relationship managers as you are on finding and training the “best” individual?
 
GROWING CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS
  Questions to consider:
  1. Do your existing client relationships have the potential to grow further? What’s holding you back?
  2. Why do you believe some of your relationships grow while others stagnate?
  3. Are your client-facing professionals “agenda setters” who proactively engage their clients with new ideas, points of view, and value-added suggestions? How much sole source business do they procure?
 
CLIENT ACCOUNT PLANNING
  Questions to consider:
  1. How effective is your current client account planning and development process? How would you rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = ineffective and 5 = best in class?
  2. Is your account planning a box-checking exercise or a vibrant, participative process with rigorous follow through?
  3. For which of your clients does it make sense to invest in a comprehensive account planning process?
 
DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS
  Questions to consider:
  1. How many of your client-facing professionals are currently able to play the role of trusted advisor to senior economic buyers?
  2. How many of your client-facing professionals have the potential to act as trusted advisors to senior management?
  3. How many simply lack the innate talent pr predisposition to build the kinds of client relationships you need to grow to implement your strategy?