Chapter 3: Informal Client Relationship Development by Consultants: The Star Players and the Naturals

Initiating and maintaining informal client contact forms a crucial part of the daily routine of a consultant. Yet, while partners, directors, and senior managers of consultancy organizations devote a lot of time to informal contact with clients, thus far little research has been conducted to determine the specific role of such informal contact. This explorative study, based on in-depth interviews with 125 European consultants, sheds light on the function and value of informal relationships with clients, revealing the tensions and paradoxes that consultants encounter as they engage in such informal contact. The metaphors game and art provide a framework on which to arrange the five paradoxes identified in the study.