Corporations and PR firms alike yearn for stable, long-term relationships that mutually benefit both sides. A new book, Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Develop
Breakthrough Relationships, offers guidance on one side of the equation - how any consultant can rise from hired gun to trusted advisor. Authors Jagdish Sheth and Andrew Sobel
define experts as those engaged by clients to carry out projects, while advisors are those whose views are sought on broader matters of strategic importance. The book identifies
seven characteristics of those who transcend common consultant roles. PR NEWS caught up with Sobel to discuss the client's perspective.
PRN: How can public relations professionals apply the principles in your book to their client relationships?
Sobel: First, there's a real opportunity here [for] all the people who are helping top management, in a sense, do their jobs. They have a great opportunity to become a
broad-based, trusted advisor to their clients. What they're working on potentially cuts right to the heart of the top executive's job. People who remain plain-vanilla experts
will, in fact, be relegated to that [role] by the client... It's the concept of the deep generalist - [those who have] a much broader role with top management are the ones who
understand corporate strategy, industries, organizational structure, then go further into personal interest learning, whether reading, learning a language, travel or [a hobby].
They can really expand their role because it cuts right to the heart of corporate strategy.
PRN: How can companies find advisors with the traits you discuss - selfless independence, empathy, synthesis, judgment and so on?
Sobel: Initially, most top executives approach it from the point of view that they need an expert. CEOs don't go around saying they need an advisor; they go out to find
a great public relations firm or a great PR specialist because they have a specific problem. Then it's up to the professional to determine how it develops, [to] bring to bear
insight and wisdom instead of just public relations expertise. That is the dilemma for professionals, because clients tend to think of you as an expert. Ironically, what they
really value is your ability to go beyond that.
Some CEOs will do it intuitively. In those initial meetings ...they will see the early signs of the person who is potentially an advisor, not just an expert.
PRN: When is it necessary or desirable to call in an advisor, rather than rely on in-house talent?
Sobel: Any time a company is really trying to make a major change in direction, it's really critical. When there's a new strategy for a company, a new direction, those
outside eyes are really important.
The second time I see this happen is when there's a new CEO or new top management team and they're in a kind of learning mode... They need people who are going to be
iconoclasts, gore the sacred cows.
PRN: Are there steps companies can or should take to keep their consulting relationships on track?
Sobel: I think it comes down to essentially making the time, on a routine basis, to review the state of the relationship. I think it involves a period [of] sitting down
with your agency... every three months, six months, annually, and having a very open discussion about "Here's what you guys have done well, here's where you guys could have done
better." And it's having the humility - frankly, most clients won't do this - to say, "How can we be a better client?"
[When you] pick people, particularly for a high-level job, you consider peers. If you're going to advise a top executive, you've got to be at that level yourself. Have a
session over lunch or whatever [and say], "I want to tell you how it's really going. Here's some areas where you've fallen down... What can my organization do to make you more
effective?" Most clients don't do it, [they] shy away from that, but it builds trust.
PRN: How can PR professionals become the kind of advisors that CEOs call upon for counsel?
Sobel: You have to kind of say, "Where am I in the whole [career] life cycle," because your tactics are going to be different depending upon where you are. The first is
being the expert for hire. The second stage, sort of an intermediate level, is being a steady supplier. You're asked back again and again... it's steady employment. Then there's
the later stage where you're acting more as that broad-based advisor.
In the first stage you have to differentiate yourself from all the other experts out there. One way could be, you just hit the ball out of the park - you overinvest in [the
project], you have your best people on it, [and] the client says, "These guys are damned good." It could be, right up front... the senior person takes the time to look at the
account, the industry, see how everyone's positioned... that big-picture [thinking].
In the steady supplier mode - steady, but still pigeonholed - the main task here is to really work on the interpersonal trust and confidence of the client...Part of trust is
intimacy, getting to know the client personally and professionally, becoming deeply knowledgeable about the company and the industry. When it's just a one-off job, how
knowledgeable can you get? But if you're on a retainer relationship... that's an opportunity to get to know that client better than anyone else. You've got your foot in the door.
It's yours to win or lose.
PRN: What can companies do to become better clients, better able to appreciate and use their advisors?
Sobel: The first thing is, really good clients are great learners - they have a learning attitude. If you fundamentally get yourself into, "I'm going to learn from
this," it's going to open you up to a lot. Second, in dealing with outside professionals, they need to be acknowledged. I see a lot of clients who use outside professionals,
outside public relations agencies, [and] treat them like they're pencil vendors. Boy - that's not a way to motivate a team. They think, "I'm paying these guys big bucks," [when
they ought to think] "We owe some of our success to you, this is wonderful." Praise motivates outside professionals just the way it motivates internal staff.
And be clear about what you want and what your objectives are... Sometimes people hire an outside firm too early in the process - they need help but it's sort of inchoate...
[The client] sends them off in direction A, then they realize kind of what they want is direction B... Or the firm comes back and says [they] hit it out of the park and the guy
says, "I'm not sure that's what I want."
Often it's helpful to begin your discussions with one or more firms as a way to help clarify what you want, but that's prior to actually bringing one on board. There's an
exploratory process that will help you clarify... both your objectives and picking someone... One thing that some companies do, they get into this mega-proposal thing. It can
waste a lot of client time, a lot of agency time, [because] you devote very little of your executive time up front... I think having working sessions is better, where you are
honing the issues. The firm might come back to you with a five-page letter, summarizing, "Here is how we see these issues..."
Being a great client helps you be a great provider.
Andrew Sobel has spent 20 years advising senior executives in more than 30 countries. Clients have included prominent companies such as American Express, Cox
Communications, Pacific Bell, Siemens and Lloyds Bank. He is now president of Client Leadership, a professional development firm. Sobel is scheduled as a guest on
CNBC's "Today's Business" on Sept. 19, for the 6:30 a.m. segment, to discuss the concepts in Clients for Life. The book is set for general release this week. (Sobel,
505/982-0211, [email protected])