HR teams in service businesses have a responsibility to help the client-facing staff in their companies to become indispensable, trusted advisors, according to a former chief executive of an international consultancy.

Andrew Sobel, the world’s leading authority on client relationship management, will present a webinar on Friday 6th May, examining the mindset, skills and strategies that can help client teams build successful long-term client relationships and the HR and L&D support that’s required. 

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Called Building clients for life, it will be introduced by Rosie Bailey, Co-Founder and Director at OnTrack International, the global learning consultancy.

Having spent 20 years interviewing over 5,000 successful advisors and the senior executives who appoint them, Andrew Sobel has identified a proven approach that can help individuals and organisations create and sustain enduring client partnerships. His bestselling books, including Clients for Life and Power Questions, have been translated into 19 languages. 

“Successful external and internal relationships are fundamental for any business but most professionals actually go about building them in entirely the wrong way,” he said. “They talk at their clients, drag large PowerPoint presentations into their meetings, push their own methodologies and barely leave room for a question.

“Their behaviour actually invites discount requests from clients. Salespeople and relationship managers often start as an expert-for-hire, but unless they evolve their relationship, they’ll be perceived as a ‘vendor.’

They’ll always be treated as commodities, an expense that can be minimised or cut. This webinar will explain the specific skills that client-facing professionals must develop to transform their role, to become indispensable trusted partners who can help clients achieve their most important business goals.”

In the webinar, Andrew Sobel will highlight the additional skills that individuals need, to develop more effective, higher-value relationships with multiple stakeholders. He will also outline the support that HR teams need to provide, to empower client-facing staff and to cultivate a client-centric culture.

“Despite the prevalence of procurement teams and competitive bidding, relationships still play a crucial role in determining whether a service provider will win and retain new clients,” said Rosie Bailey.

“At every level, client handlers need to build trust, ask powerful questions to better understand their clients’ essential needs – their ‘agenda’ of key priorities – and listen deeply. This requires personal integrity, the right mindset and learnable skills and strategies, which we’ll cover in this webinar. HR practitioners can also benefit from these skills personally, by providing a more consistent and differentiated experience to their internal clients.”

Building clients for life will be presented on Friday 6 May 2016 at 2.00pm-2.45pm BST. Register online at: https://www.ontrackinternational.com/building-clients-for-life

The webinar will highlight:

• A proven framework of the individual and institutional capabilities needed to build long-term, trusted client relationships.
• The critical mindset change that will help client handlers to win and keep clients and customers.
• How HR and Learning and Development teams can support the creation of a ‘Clients for life’ organisation that provides a consistent, differentiated client experience.