Bringing Value To Client Relationships

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Client relationships are one of the most misunderstood areas of professional services. Many professional services providers confuse friendliness with adding value.  Developing personal business friendships can be good — a golf outing or a restaurant meal can build rapport and trust. Real value, however, flows from one’s ability to understand a client’s business well enough to provide solutions to their pressing problems.  This requires proactive work.

I recently read an interview with the well known author and consultant Andrew Sobel in Consulting Magazine’s online newsletter.  In his new book, All for One: Ten Strategies for Building Trusted Partnerships,  Sobel talks about the importance of truly understanding the client’s organization to delivering value. To support his point, Sobel tells a story — one consulting firm sent a partner to spend almost a full year with a potential client so that he could understand the organization well enough to be able to identify problems and create value. The first piece of business they landed was a $20 million contract! This may be an extreme example, but the lesson is clear.

Your status as an outside expert gives you a distinct advantage over an insider. But you create real value when your firm can establish a deep enough understanding of your client’s challenges that you are able to apply the entire gamut of your skills to their problems. Look for opportunities to go beyond solving their immediate problem.  For example, you might mentor their junior staff as a side benefit of your engagement.  Or you might help launch your client’s career to the next level. To build a high-value relationship you must expand the normal parameters of an engagement.  Sobel does an excellent job of describing this process.