How to retain and build trust with clients

Possibly the most interesting book on the subject, In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., defines three ways you can

compete to gain customers: operational excellence, product excellence, or

customer intimacy. The book makes the point to choose one and let that lead your company. Another choice may be a secondary goal, but you cant pursue all three. For example, if you're Home Depot, you compete with the lowest price based on operational excellence; if youre Neiman Marcus, you compete with the best service. If youre Intel, you compete with the best technology.

What Zone Do We put our Focus

Some Strategies For Implementation

Strategy One: Becoming an Agenda Setter Understanding and Shaping Your Client's Most Critical Priorities
why is this subject so important? There are many reasons:

1. Relevance: In order to be truly relevant to a client, your work must directly relate to and support that clients agenda of critical priorities. If you cannot demonstrate this, you will be sidelined: senior management wont care about your work, and your fees will always be under scrutiny. Youll be a nice-to have but nonessential vendor. 2. Impact: If you want to impact a clients success, your work needs to somehow affect or tie to the companys most important levers for growth and value creation.
3. Ensuring that the agenda is the right one: The wrong agenda can be disastrous. E.g. : At this writing, General Motors market capitalization is a fraction of Toyotas, and bankruptcy is a distinct possibilitya consequence of spending decades following the wrong agenda (a wasted robotics program in the 1980s; lack of investment in hybrid technologies; an excessive focus on large SUVs sport utility vehicle and trucks as oil prices climbed; and so on). Clearly, General Motors agenda has not been the right one.

4. Breadth: You may be initially asked to work on a relatively circumscribed, narrow issue for a client. Your ability to broaden the relationship over time depends on understanding and being able to engage with the clients broader agenda. If all of your conversations with the client are about the specific project at hand, its unlikely you will be able to discern additional needs, introduce other colleagues, and therefore grow the relationship.

Agenda stage
Stage 1Agenda reacting: In stage 1, you react to a clients request for work. You get a call asking for help with an issue. Your client has identified the need, not youyoure reactive,

not proactive.

Stage 2Agenda sensing: In this phase, you invest time to deeply understand your clients

needs, issues, and goals. This may happen as a natural consequence of working with her,
or it may require a special effort to get to know her as an individual, learn about her business, and understand the markets and industries in which her organization competes.

Stage 3Agenda setting: At this point, you have earned the requisite trust to be able to help your client shape and set her agenda. You have a seat at the table when your client is thinking about her most important issues.

Executive Conversations
Client agendas are uncovered through openended questions that probe for key priorities, problems, and opportunities. Here are some suggested questions that may be helpful as you explore and try to uncover a clients agenda:

1. In talking to our other clients in your industry, we find that there are three major issues

that they are grappling with right now . . . how would these resonate with you and your
management? 2. How is your organization reacting to . . . [a recent, important development in this clients industry or function]? 3. How are you handling . . . [new competition, low-cost imports, a new regulatory framework, etc.]? 4. Can you share with me your thoughts about the most pressing issues that youre focused on right now? 5. Can you say more about what you mean by . . . [organizational transformation, globalisation, cultural change, innovation, etc.]. Do you have some specific goals? What

programs are you trying to implement to achieve them?

6. At the end of the year, how will you be evaluated? What accomplishments or goals will you be judged by?

7. As you look at your plan for this year, what do you feel is working well? Where
are you making less progress? 8. What are your biggest opportunities over the next several years? 9. What issues do you wish you could spend more of your time on? Less time on? 10. How would you describe your organizations priorities for the next year?

Conclusion
If you are responsible for developing and managing client relationships, it is imperative to hone your skills at sensing and shaping client agendas. The art of growing a relationship is very much founded on the capacity to deliver high-quality work in a

specific area of expertise, while simultaneously conversing

intelligently with your client about their broader agenda and connecting your work to it. A profound understanding of your clients most critical issues and goals, in short, is essential to building the Level 6 trusted partnerships .

Strategy two
Engaging New Clients Evolving Your Relationships from Contacts to Clients First meetings with a far more specific plan. You should have four main goals for any first meeting:

1. Build rapport.

2. Understand the other persons issues.

3. Demonstrate credibility. 4. Establish a next step.

1. Build rapport.
A- The New Neuroscience of Empathy

Researchers have discovered that these mirror neurons fire

in exactly the same patterns whether you are performing the action or someone else is performing it. So in essence, these specialized brain cells allow you to actually experience what the other person is experiencing.

B- Mimicry
The concept of mimicry, or mirroring another persons body language in order to establish rapport In another study conducted at Duke University, researchers had 37 students drink a beverage that was touted as a new sports drink. The researcher who subsequently interviewed them about the drink mimicked their posture and movements, using a one- or two-second delay. If a student crossed

her legs, the interviewer would wait a second or two and also cross his legs. If
the student scratched her nose, the interviewer would also scratch his nose, trying to approximately but not precisely copy the gesture. At the end of the

interviews, students who had been mimicked with a delay were far more likely
to say that they would buy the new sports drink, compared to students who were not mimicked.

2. Understand the other persons issues.

A- What we find: In this approach, you share with the client some specific experience or best practices that relate to their issue, and then you let them react. You might say, What we find is that there are usually three potential obstacles to implementing a program like this, or, What we find is that behavioral change is an important but often-ignored ingredient in this situation.

B- Smart questions:

In this context, a smart question is one in which you

demonstrate your own knowledge of the issues while getting your client to open up and tell you more about theirs. It works well when you ask the client to place their organization on a scale of extremesfor example, I might say, Some of my clients,

which have historically had tenure-based compensation systems,

are now moving toward more individually driven rewards. On the other hand, other clients are trying to get away from an emphasis on individual performance and are moving toward team based incentives. Im curious, where is your organization on this continuum?

C- What are the implications? Implication questions are almost always fruitful as a means to explore a clients issues. You can simply ask, How is this affecting . . . (morale, sales, productivity, risk exposure, communications, speed of decision making, etc.)?

D- Let me give you an example:

This approach to gleaning your prospective clients issues involves simply sharing several case examples of other clients youve worked with, and getting the other person to react to those stories. This works best in response to questions like, So tell me something about your firm, in which case you respond by saying, The best way to talk about what we do is to give you one or two examples of recent work weve completed. After you recount a short, sharp case study (100 to 150 words, no more), the client will usually say something like, Thats interesting. Actually, were facing a similar issue. Or, Thats really not our issue. What we are up against is quite different.

 E- What are your priorities?

I still hear people asking questions like What keeps you up at night? or What are your three most pressing issues right now? As Ive mentioned, these are shopworn, overused, and with some clients, possibly intrusive.

For example, To understand if and how we can be helpful, it would useful to get a sense from you about some of the high-priority issues you are working on right now. Or, I know you have a lot on your plate right now. In your view, what would you say are the most critical issues on your agenda? You can also turn this over to the client and say, I understand that weve got 30 minutes this morningare there some particular issues youd like to focus in on during our discussion?

3. Demonstrate credibility

Here are a number of things you can do in a conversation to indirectly demonstrate your credibility and, hopefully, to communicate something to the client that they dont already know: Describe short, pithy examples of successful client assignments that you have completed. Use or evoke third-party endorsements. Share ideas, experiences, and best practices you have observed. Ask thoughtful questions that implicitly demonstrate your knowledge of the issues. Suggest counter-intuitive or unusual approaches. Synthesize rather than summarize (a summary is boring; a synthesis adds value by clarifying and framing the gist of the discussion). Make it a conversation, not a presentation, and use documents as leavebehinds, not the main course. Treat your clients like peers. Dont be either sycophantic or condescending. Demonstrate great enthusiasm for your work. Through your energy and passion, show your clients that you love what you do.

4. Establish a next step.

Now, we are talking about evoking the clients curiosity to want to meet again with you or someone else from your firm. You can evoke your clients curiosity in a variety of ways, such as:

 Clearly making the connection between a tough issue they are trying to solve and a specific capability or experience you can bring to bear on that issue (client is thinking: Maybe they have the skills to help us).

Suggesting that you can bring back some data or research that is either just
plain intriguing, or that will shed light on one of the issues the client is dealing with (client is thinking: Theyve got some interesting data Id like to see). Offering an introduction to a colleagueor even someone outside your firm, such as a clientwho has first-class expertise and experience (client is thinking: Id like to meet this person. Shes a real expert).

Conversational Techniques

1. Synthesizing: Pulling the conversation together and clarifying the issues, as opposed to just summarizing. 2. Active listening: Interjecting okay, uh huh; I see; what happened then? and so on. 3. Nonverbal listening: Leaning over, using strong eye contact, focusing completely on the other person. 4. Echoing: Repeating the last word of the other persons sentence, to encourage elaboration. 5. Self-disclosure: Saying things like I know what you meanI missed my wifes birthday one year, too. 6. Open-ended questions: How do you think this is affecting your customer service? 7. Provocative questions: Why? So what? Does that really matter? 8. Questions about the meaning of words: Encouraging the other person to elaborate: What exactly do you mean by..? 9. Questions about the past, the present, and the future: How and when did this start? What are you doing now about it? In a years time, what kind of progress do you hope to achieve? 10. Personal questions: Where did you grow up?; Going forward, is there another role youd like to play in the organization? 11. Questions about feelings: How did people feel about that decision?

(Listening Pitfalls)
There are a number of bad habits that I have observedstarting with some of my ownthat can get in the way of effective listening and, therefore, good conversations. Ask yourself how often you indulge in any of the following:

1.

Thinking ahead: Our minds often race ahead to the next question or issue while the person were with is still talking. Believing that youre the most insightful person in the room: We tend to forget that its not always about being right or having the perfect idea, but rather about helping clients make changes that will improve their business. Being in love with your own ideas: After spending weeks or months analyzing the problem, its easy to become enamored of the conclusions youre trying to presentas opposed to creating a give-and-take with the client as you socialize and test your ideas. Listening without giving back: Good listening is about mutual disclosure, not just sitting there and taking notes. The conversation has to be interspersed with sharing of your own thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences. Not affirming or validating: Affirmation is a powerful reinforcement for the person speaking. Paraphrase and synthesize as you go along. Affirm that you have understood your client.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Lack of mindfulness: We are often distracted, rushed, and judgmental; and not present in the current moment. All of your body language has to reinforce that this is the most important conversation happening in your world today.

7.

Indulging your biases: We all have biases, and even prejudices, which
inhibit our ability to listen. Some studies have shown, for example, that doctors give inferior care to certain minority groups. Why? Most likely

because their unconscious biases prevent them from listening wellfrom

taking these patients as seriously as they should. 8. Not allowing silence: Silence gives the client a chance to think and reflect,

and it can make you seem thoughtful and considered in your judgments.
Dont rush to fill every second of airtime embrace the occasional pause or break in the conversation.

Engaging with Senior Executives

Think about the senior executives that you know. What are they like, inside and outside the office? What pressures are they under? In their careers, they are most likely highly driven and successful. You will probably find that many of them read widely and pursuewith passion and vigoran eclectic variety of outside interests. At work, they have access to vast amounts of information because they tend to be collection points for a broad array of market and competitive data that cross their desk. They will value your expertise, especially if you are truly good at what you do. But if you are onedimensional and have few professional or personal interests outside your core specialty, its unlikely that your relationship with them will grow very close. As one of my clients said to me, In order to be interesting, youve got to have interests. A recent New York Times article about the libraries of CEOs starts with the headline, In personal libraries, more literature and poetry than business best sellers.

Nice rule
If you are not spending 50 percent of the time you have with a senior executive talking about things other than the immediate project you are working on, youre probably not really developing a relationship with that person. Relationship Manager

1- Value for Time

For senior corporate executives, value for time has become more important than value for money. Examples of ways to add more value for time would therefore include the following:

 Always ensure that the focus of your conversation connects to

and aligns with the executives agenda of critical priorities. If it doesnt seem like you are connecting with the other person, consider redirecting the conversation. Ernst & Young Managing Partner Mike Hamilton, who is Chief Learning and Development Officer for the Americas, likes to ask clients a simple question: Whats the most important issue we should be discussing today? This can powerfully focus your time together.

Getting to Know Clients as People

Here are some practices that will help you move from a purely professional, arms-length relationship to one that has a personal dimension to it:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Be human and accessible: Sometimes we are too professional, too buttoneddown, or too flawless. Its very hard to become enamored of someone who has no imperfections or vices, and who has seemingly never made a mistake. Its okayeven necessaryto occasionally show your human side. Offer praise and complement your client when its appropriate to do so: You can be sure that a lot of people certainly arent patting them on the back. Even highly successful clients appreciate positive reinforcement. Just make sure that its sincere! Use humor: Humor is a universal way of connecting to others and diffusing tensions. If you make fun of yourself, it also is a way of showing you are human Ask your clients for advice: They may in fact have some very good counsel for you on issues of importance, and it will certainly make them feel good to be asked. Look for breakthrough moments: In Clients for Life, I talk about breakthrough moments in the life of a relationshipmoments that catapult your bond to a new level. These can include working through an extraordinarily difficult project or transaction together, dealing with a major crisis, or perhaps, when your client faces a daunting personal issue, providing support and advice.

5. Ask about their lives: Most clients are quite happy to talk about their family and interests outside of work. 6. Follow your clients lead: Move slowly and take small steps. If someone is very private and resistant to invitations to talk about family and personal interests, dont push themgradually build familiarity.

Accelerating Trust
How to:
1. Occasionally say, I dont know, or Im not sure how to answer that question right now. 2. Answer every question from your client with refreshing honesty and candor. 3. Occasionally say no to a client request for more work if youre not the best firm to do that kind of work. 4. Make a recommendation that is clearly in your clients interest and clearly not in your own interest. 5. Spend more time togetherat work and outside of work. 6. Always keep promises. 7. Recognize unspoken issues and emotions, and try to bring them out into the open. 8. Never criticize others who are not in the room. 9. Tell your client, right away, if youve made a mistake. 10. Start a relationship by having an interesting conversation together, not by showing how brilliant you are.

CONCLUSION

1. Confidence is critical to building Level 6 relationships ,

If you dont believe these things, why should your clients? 2. focus is essential : Its almost impossible to develop Level 6 relationships without a significant

concentration of resources. The organization should invest in its client relationship.

3. Reinforce a collaborative, client centered culture

Thanks for your attention

M. Emam