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Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships. (Second Edition) ReviewRoss Dawson has recently produced the second edition to his successful Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships. Opening sentences set the tone: "Knowledge and relationships are where all value resides in today's economy...Moreover, knowledge itself is all about relationships." This resonates well with my experience. In this book, Ross looks at this issue in the context of professional service firms, a market in which I spent over 20 years of service. In this case, a client is not simply purchasing the services of the smart individual assigned to them, but the collective knowledge of the entire firm. That is where the unique value lies. Otherwise a simple placement service at much lower rates would be sufficient.
This is the second edition of a book which first appeared in 2000. One of the major upgrades came from an understanding that if you clients do not recognize the value you create for them through more knowledge-based relationships and services, it does not help you or your clients. This new edition addresses this issue by proving material on how to lead your clients through knowledge based relations and understand the value they bring. Ross provides a useful model for obtaining a deep partnership with your client. The four stages are engaging, aligning, deepening, and partnering. While there are many such models, I have found them useful focal points for activities. For example, we used a somewhat similar model to design our internal marketing efforts at Ryder. It helps to ensure that you are laying the right foundation for a deep relationship and not getting ahead of the process. You do not what to conduct aligning activities until you are engaged, etc. Sounds simple, but this point is often overlooked in practice without a model to check against.
There is a good section on the current and future status of professional service firms and a multi-chapter section on how these firms can add value by promoting knowledge-based relationships with their clients. Being very practical I was especially interested in the final section on implementation. How can you practically do this stuff? As Ross wrote, the real value is making these things happen. I was not disappointed here. He gives a robust framework of the five key domains: strategies, structures, process, skills, and culture. But, more importantly, fills this framework in with specific suggestions.
Next, follows a review of the growing communication channels available to connect with clients and their strengths and limitations. There is a tradeoff between efficiency and relationship strength. But the high payoff activities come from the high relationship initiatives. Ross extends this approach to offer ways to expand client contact beyond the initial relationships that brought you into the firm. This expanded contact requires greater guidance and leadership to ensure consistency and alignment with your objectives for the client and this leadership is the subject of the next chapter. Here he makes use of the four stage model introduced earlier, engaging, aligning, deepening, and partnering, and applies it to a variety of communication channels. I have found that a key to success in most consulting relationships is active involvement by the client. The best initiatives, the ground breaking ones, came from a partnering with some smart client people. The worst were ones were we were forced to do it for them. Ross develops this theme in the next chapter on co-creation with some excellent examples such as the successful London ad agency, Mother.
Ross concludes with an appendix on the nature of mental models drawing on cognitive science. This was my academic field so I read this piece with great interest. He covers the two main types of mental representations, analogical or sensory based like images, and propositional which are abstract in nature and best represented by language and math. These two forms can complement each other but their qualities need to recognized and taken advantage of in communication. The goal of this review of the basic concepts of cognitive science is to provide a grounding in ways to more effectively transfer knowledge. To transfer knowledge we must understand how people acquire this knowledge.
I certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to develop deeper client relations, create more impactful initiatives and enable their clients to appreciate the significance of this work.
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