2005 Q1 Book Review
Clients for Life
by Jagdish and Andrew Sobel
Although this book is directed more toward developing working relationships with clients than customers it can be very insightful for anyone trying to strengthen relationships with buyers of your products or services. The authors distinguish between customers and clients as follows. Customers buy a product or service with well-defined characteristics that match their needs, with little or no negotiation. With clients, there is a consultative aspect to it – there is give-and-take to clarify needs, identify problems, and recommend solutions.
The key to any relationship, whether it is a customer or a client, is to add value. For the professional it is important to provide synthesis. Synthesis is the ability to see the big picture, to draw out the themes and patterns inherent in masses of data and information. It includes related skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving.
The authors discuss the need for sound judgment in decision making and identify five steps to good judgment. The first is the ability to frame problems appropriately at the outset followed by the ability to engage in creative but selective fact gathering. The third step is to use intuition in which personal experiences are leveraged to find similar patterns and relevant analogs. Judgment is then filtered through a clear set of personal beliefs and values. And the final step is the ability to be honest enough to learn from the experience.