At some level, each of us at The Ian Martin Group recognizes that serving good clients long term ranks as the #1 way to build our careers.
IMG colleagues in sales and recruiting wonder how they can nurture business relationships that last. Choosing an approach is challenging, but IMG company experience shows that trust and loyalty can be built.
You’ll be surprised, if you read a book by business thinker, Patrick Lencioni. It is called, “Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding the Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty.”
His startling ideas are presented within the framework of a fictional story. We follow the career dilemma which Jack Bauer, a San Francisco management consultant, encounters, when his staid company acquires a unique, tiny competitor with a novel approach… and he is put in charge. Humour, yes. I laughed out loud. Lencioni catches the crisp silly edge of office politics and client relationships today. But he also issues a challenge.
Put simply, Lencioni advises us to have the courage to serve clients by honing our ability to be vulnerable. He praises vulnerability as a positive quality. He encourages us to ask questions, when we don’t understand. Sometimes they may appear to be “dumb”. OK. He tells us to be transparent with clients, even when it means we give solutions away for nothing. Why? These approaches inspire client trust.
Every service provider, Lencioni contends, works in daily fear of losing the business, of being embarrassed and of feeling inferior. Sounds familiar. No need to live, however, in the face of these fears. There is power when we, “embrace uncommon levels of humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client.” Counterintuitive, perhaps, but Lencioni’s case is well made and it stands up.
Interested in digesting the book for yourself? Your manager can order you a complimentary copy, if you request one.
