 | |
 View Larger |
Clients for Life: Evolving from an Expert-for-Hire to an Extraordinary Adviser By Jagdish N. ShethAndrew Sobel ( Free Press )
Release Date: 2002-03-05
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $15.00
Price: $10.20
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|  Add to Cart |
|
|
Product Description
An Innovative Blueprint for Enduring Client Relationships More than 15 million people in this country earn their livings by serving clients, and their numbers are growing every day. Unfortunately, far too few develop the skills and strategies needed to rise to the top in a world where clients have almost unlimited access to information and expertise. Supported by more than one hundred case studies and wisdom gleaned from interviews with dozens of leading CEOs and prominent business advisors, Clients for Life identifies what clients really want and lays out the core qualities that distinguish the client advisor -- an irreplaceable resource -- from the expert for hire -- a tradable commodity. Experts are specialists; advisors become deep generalists who have broad perspective.
Experts are for hire; advisors have selfless independence, balancing client devotion with objectivity and detachment.
Experts have professional credibility; advisors develop deep personal trust.
Experts analyze; advisors synthesize and bring big-picture thinking to the table.
Experts supply expertise and information; advisors are educators who provide insight and wisdom.
Portraits of history's most famously successful advisors, including Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, and J. P. Morgan, underscore these timeless qualities that modern professionals need to develop to excel in today's competitive environment.
|
|
significant read for any client servicing professional ( jogoh )
this is an understated gem of a book. typically you find the core of a book lying within a few chapters but I felt this book was very balanced, each chapter contributing a different perspective to how to create clients for life.
the authors illustrated each principle with a real example and its the lives of the great men / women that provides genuine inspiration to go further.
as an advertising professional, I like the framework presented here very much, it provides a practical basis for creating solid, long-term client relationships, no fuss, the real meat.
|
Its all about character
Strongly recommend this book. The professions would be better off if it were more widely read. An inspiring and enjoyable read, with interesting asides and illustrations. An antidote for aspiring individuals working in low-trust, money focused organizations.
|
How to Become a Distinguished Advisor ( sergevs )
Jagdish Sheth and Andrew Sobel convincingly retrace in Clients for Life the journey that professionals can make to become extraordinary advisers to some of their clients. Their findings are based not only on their personal experience, but perhaps more importantly, on in-depth interviews with leaders of major corporations who have gained significant experience in buying services and seeking advice from professionals.
Sheth and Sobel make a distinction among expert for hire, steady supplier, and extraordinary adviser on the professional services continuum. Some professionals are sought-after advisers instead of being just an expert for hire who offers his expertise on a transactional basis or a steady supplier who despite his repeated engagements has not been admitted to the inner circle of close advisers. Sheth and Sobel call this broad-based, abiding client relationship which generates collaboration and insight a breakthrough relationship.
Sheth and Sobel have isolated seven attributes that great professionals successfully develop and integrate into a powerful whole to come to a breakthrough relationship with a client. At the bottom of the pyramid, there are selfless independence (meeting clients' needs while preserving integrity) and empathy. Knowledge depth and breadth, synthesis, and judgment represent the thinking process that is expected from an extraordinary adviser. Finally, at the top of the pyramid, there are integrity and conviction that make up the character expected from such an extraordinary adviser. Sheth and Sobel illustrate each attribute with examples that help the practitioner put their recommendations into practice.
Great professionals have to infuse everything they do with a soul of abundance (doing the right thing regardless of monetary outcome), mission, and self-renewal. Sheth and Sobel conclude their examination of breakthrough relationships with the pitfalls and dilemmas in client relationships. Not all clients are open to this type of relationship.
|
Essential for any consultant. ( de13809 )
As a consultant, this book helped me focus on behaviors aimed at building a long-term practice rather than simply going from success-to-success. I say this not to toot my own horn (yes, I've had failures too) but rather because most decent consultants actually do OK--clients are generally happy. We appear to succeed on a regular basis. The great consultants, however, are the ones who build vocal followings...and that's where the value of this work rests.
|
Client Loyalty Doesn't Have to be an Oxymoron ( bookintro )
Sheth and Sobel bring to life the concept of client relationships in a way that consultants, and other professioanl service providers, can use immediately. The value of this book is that it takes the client's point of view when discussing professional relationships, rather than focusing on how to sell services.
And, the book goes beyond theory to give the reader specific actions to guide their interactions with clients, and become true advisors to clients. The book stresses how to make the transition from a service provider to a client advisor.
The book also points out the land mines in client relationships, and how you can avoid them. An experienced consultant may find many of the concepts in this book familiar, but you may question how well you're following the authors' great advice. Those who are newer to the business will find a well-researched template for building a practice of clients for life.
Michael McLaughlin, coauthor with Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants.
|
|
|
