A Dragon Walks into a Meeting: A Tactical Guide to Client Management

This book had many gems when it comes to customer management. Some to that come to mind:- Bank Deposit metaphor- How to write an effective email- Be present to have presenceHighly recommend for people new to customer relationship building and maintaining.

A Dragon Walks into a Meeting has been a very valuable and enjoyable read. Having worked in various Client-facing roles (Consulting, Sales, Growth), I appreciated the authors’ LOGICAL approach to Client management. It makes perfect sense, but also helps us recognize that we are all guilty of falling short of our duties in one way or another. I think this skill gets overlooked as employees and organizations become increasingly focused on the near-term and this book gives real/concrete recommendations on navigating those waters.The other piece that I love is this book is written with no BS attached. It is direct, easy to read, and as it states “A tactical guide”.I think it’s especially valuable to younger people entering client-facing roles for the first time. A lot of kids fresh out of school are unsure of how to behave in client-facing roles, often times trying to be TOO professional (I know, crazy concept). This book will help them recognize that the things that come naturally to them (like being a good human-being) SHOULD be used.

Such a great read for anyone who works with clients. The obvious being the Account Manager, also super useful for Sales Reps too. The authors, John & Fred, have many years of client management between them & the knoweledge they share is certain to guide the Account Manager toward success. Much of what they discuss & share seems (or should be) common knowledge, yet they deliver the information in a way this is enjoyable to consume & provides evidence to the importance of each action. Whether they are discussing how best to host a meeting, which medium & tone is best for communicating a particular piece of information, or simply sharing tips & tricks when it comes to business travel; the tenants of this book are invaluable to anyone handling Account Management. If you run a company, an account managment or sales time, I recommend you arm your team with this book.

John and Fred write in the Introduction to the book, “We’ve found client management is almost nonexistent as a business topic – whether in business school curriculum, books or training.” This book fills that void extremely well. John and Fred offer a practical approach to client management through real –life experiences that they have encountered over their many years in client management. They offer many activities a client manager can apply immediately and advice on handling some potentially sticky situations. In fact, almost everyone in business has “clients”. The clients could be internal or a manager’s direct reports and most all of the topics in this book can be applied to working with those clients as well. They also have a very entertaining and informative podcast, “Account Management (A Tactical Guide to Success)".

This is a fantastic book. The authors really understand that trust between individuals is the essential foundation of cultivating successful, lasting relationships with anyone who pays you to provide a product or service. Their real-life stories, which are actually pretty fun to read, incisively call out the practicalities of client management, covering everything from how to travel, use email, and even handle inappropriate behavior. If you are learning the ropes of client or account management or lead a team of client managers, this book is a must read.

I picked up this book because as a SME and resource to client managers, I wanted to understand how I might be a better partner to them. John and Fred provide a great tactical view into the mindsets, actions and routines that make for good client management. After reading, I now have a much better understanding of how I can help client managers be successful.

Having worked with John for many years and seeing these concepts put into practice, I can attest to the valuable advice on these pages. I highly recommend this read to anyone involved in client management. The concepts are easy to understand and highly effective in practice.

Greta book! John Brown and Fred Fuller did a wonderful job in outlining how to be successful with client management. A good and fast read. This book is for all middle management and not just for client managers.

Bought this book after listening to all of their podcasts. This book is phenomenal!I'm an account manager at a mortgage brokerage and deal with a lot of clients daily. There were quite a few things that I've learned on the job but there were SO many gold nuggets on top of that.So many good tips and skills that are crucial to an account manager.I think one of the biggest ones was that it's the account manager's job to give bad news - this one alone is likely the most important mindset changes I had got from reading this book.

Practical advice worth reading. So many account management books are either highly academic or focused on the high-level strategic company level need for account management. They hardly ever touch and the tactical aspects of an account manager’s day to day. This book addresses exactly that. It’s not a all-encompassing guide, but definitely a good start and worth reading if you’re an AM.