I’ve just finished reading and reviewing this 340 page book (“Effective client management in professional services – How to build successful client relationships” by Jack Berkovi) for Professional Marketing magazine and you should be able to read the article shortly http://www.pmforum.co.uk/magazine/ . I thought I’d share some of the material that didn’t make it into the review for space reasons.
In short, it is an excellent book – packed with good advice and practical templates which are crafted into one elegant 12-stage Client Management Model ™ which is designed to create a client-centric culture (as opposed to an internally focused practice or fee-earning) mind set:
- Orientation: Developing a culture of client orientation
- Buyers: How clients buy professional services
- Portfolio: Managing the client portfolio
- Satisfaction: Client satisfaction and loyalty
- Care: The role of client care
- Brand: Brand, differentiation and positioning and their impact on clients
- Reputation: Gaining reputation with clients
- Relationships: Client Relationship Development
- Development: Establishing an effective business development programme
- Attraction: Attracting new clients
- Proposals: Developing winning client proposals and bids
- Innovation: Innovations that impact clients
I loved the quote: “When marketing is truly effective it brings a professional, strategic approach of determining client requirements and then satisfying them profitably through competitively differentiated solutions”.
The fact that the author devotes so much time to addressing all aspects of marketing and business development into the client management process demonstrates his commitment to integration.
There are numerous case studies from the legal, accountancy and property sectors (which I have summarised in separate blogs which I will publish shortly) as well as some examples from industry as a comparison. The dominant metric for relationship management is NPS (Net Promoter Score).
There’s plenty to recommend it – there is a wealth of marketing and sales process information and guidance with some really good models, templates and diagnostics. It will be essential reading for anyone looking to implement or improve their client relationship management strategies and processes.
However, space constraints mean that individual sales, selling and relationship management skills are not covered. It’s light on theory (although the main ideas are covered) and heavy on practical advice. So I would be as happy to give it to a fee-earner who needs to obtain a comprehensive view of marketing, business development and relationship management as much as I would to a junior marketing or business development professional.
Other recent books that I have reviewed on relationship and key account management (KAM) – which are not focused on the professions – are:
http://kimtasso.com/getting-to-grips-with-key-account-management-kam/
The next presentation of the popular Professional Marketing Forum (PM Forum) half day training course “Towards KAM – helping fee-earners with client relationship management” is on Wednesday 4th March 2015 http://www.pmforum.co.uk/training/
