All For One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships

by Andrew C. Sobel

Corporate clients are demanding more value from their external advisors, and consolidating their business around a smaller number of firms. These trends are forcing a variety of service providers―from consulting firms to large banks―to confront a series of difficult All for One answers these questions with an innovative and comprehensive model for developing enduring, institutional client relationships―what Andrew Sobel refers to as Level 6 Trusted Client Partnerships. It offers readers ten specific strategies that are thoroughly supported by case studies, best practices from leading firms, and implementation tools. The individual professional is principally responsible for five of these strategies, while the firm―the institution―must support and drive the other five. When you successfully execute against all ten of these building blocks, you develop long-term, professional-client partnerships that provide great value to the client and high levels of personal satisfaction and profitability for the service provider.  

Genres: Business

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2009

Reviews

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

People who follow me on Goodreads know that one of my shelves is dedicated to literature about Consulting business. I
always try to get better at what I do. So Andrew Sobel is a pleasant surprise in that realm. He is an expert and authority in relationship management with clients.

All For One is one of his newer books and in it the author gives us a guide on how to get to Level six in Consulting, so-called Trusted partner. His approach recognizes 6 levels of relationship with clients in the service provider business and trusted partner is 6th. There is a whole chapter about how to give value to your clients and it is in line with Alan Weiss's work in a value-based approach which I greatly appreciate.

So this is my assessment of the book All For One by Andrew Sobel according to my 8 criteria:
1. Related to practice - 5 stars
2. It prevails important - 4 stars
3. I agree with the read - 5 stars
4. not difficult to read (as for non-English native) - 4 stars
5. Too long (more than 500 pages) - short and concise (150-200 pages) - 3 stars
6. Boring - every sentence is interesting - 4 stars
7. Learning opportunity - 5 stars
8. Dry and uninspired style of writing - Smooth style with humouristic and fun parts - 3 stars

Total 4.125 stars

[Joseph Mariña · Rating 3 out of 5]

It earned an extra 1/2 star today, the final day of reading after a site visit at P&G Morocco. As they shared stories of many successes, the steps taken clearly aligned with this book.

[Ricardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has both pretty interesting ideas and irrelevant ones. If you are willing to put up with the noise, there are really valuable signals.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

All for One is a book written more than ten years ago based on Sobel’s career of building trusted partnerships with clients. It’s a book on which much of my philosophy and approach to customer relationships has been built, and I figure that it was time for a reread.

Many of his ideas remain actionable, as the initial premise remains true: “The individual professional who is leading the relationship must evolve his role from that of an expert for hire to a trusted client advisor.” He states and reiterates how all actions must add value to the relationship and work towards clearly define success outcomes, even when they may not financially benefit your company. Ultimately, added value leads to increased business directly with a client, as well as indirectly through recognition and recommendations.

He also puts forward the case for deep generalists, or professionals who bring knowledge depth and knowledge breadth to their role. A deep generalist needs to be able to connect seemingly disparate areas for big-picture thinking, something which narrow specialists may not be able to achieve. Sobel presents this externally in the context of identifying a client’s goals and strategies, and aligning these with your products and services; although absolutely true, I also see a deep generalist’s work internally, as a Chief Customer Officer tries to align internal teams. A deep generalist needs knowledge breadth to marshal other teams.

For any professional who wants to build better relationships with clients, this remains a must read.

[Bryan House · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh... all the interesting parts are on his website, save yourself the time and check it out there