One key that unlocks new business is to demonstrate real interest in your potential client. That applies at every stage of the relationship from the moment you first approach the organisation to the time you sign a contract for business.

Merely reading your potential client's annual report, press clippings or analysts' reports is not enough. The shrewder buyers of professional services are looking for advisers who have done more than soak up the background like schoolboy swots. They recognise that the best will have reflected about the issues raised by the background material and taken a view which they will be willing to express because they have thought it through.

Most professional firms are generous investors in glossy brochures but a lavish full-colour production may be less effective in getting your foot through the door than an approach which demonstrates a real understanding of the issues your target faces.

Most managers prefer an approach focused on them. The big turn-off is the letter or phone call that focuses exclusively on how wonderful you and your service are. Much more effective is an approach which shows you understand and have some thoughtful ideas to contribute.

For example, perhaps a potential client has special issues. The firm that shows awareness of these issues and has new ideas scores over one that does little more than shout: "Look at me, I'm wonderful."

Having generated initial interest, it is important to be sensitive to both how fast and in what direction your potential client wants to develop the relationship.

Most buyers want the relationship to develop at their speed and they look to the company pitching to them to be aware of that. A thoughtful potential client will also be thinking about the culture fit between his organisation and your own. You score points by showing you are aware of the points of cultural empathy.

Professional firms have traditionally been big spenders on corporate hospitality. But this is increasingly disapproved of or, at least, has only a neutral impact in developing client relationships. Many companies are now looking for intellectual meat rather than meat on a plate as part of a lavish meal.

In most cases, the formal presentation of proposals is only part of a longer-term pitch for business. But it is still critically important.

What turns them off is a pitch with no depth behind it. You can question some presenters and find they've done nothing much except prepare their slides. Others show, by the thoughtfulness of their answers, that they've been thinking about what it is you might really want.

When it comes to presentations most find arrogance a negative. But they also don't like creeps and toads. Sometimes companies have to be saved from themselves. Hard-headed directors want advisers who won't be afraid to give hard-headed advice, no matter how unwelcome.