By David Ackert
Many professionals still believe their technical skill is what drives growth. If they deliver exceptional work, they assume the phone will keep ringing. But in the professional services market of 2025, that’s no longer a safe bet.
AI can already replace routine technical deliverables. It can crunch numbers, generate drafts, and produce analysis at a fraction of the time and cost. What it can’t do, however, is persuade a skeptical client, navigate political dynamics inside an organization, or build the kind of trust that keeps relationships strong through the years.
We may turn to machines to do some of the work, but it will always take a person to persuade us to do so and to guide us toward the right hybrid solutions. That human layer is where loyalty is built, and it depends less on IQ than EQ.
The doer-seller of tomorrow — the professionals who both deliver the work and bring in new business — will put as much importance, if not more, on engagement strategies that emphasize emotional intelligence, not just technical expertise.
The 7 strategies
As expertise is no longer enough, today’s professionals will want to magnify these winning strategies to gain loyalty:
1. Lead with listening. AI can parse transcripts, but it can’t truly listen. Clients want to feel heard, especially when stakes are high. Start every engagement with curiosity. Ask questions that go beyond the immediate issue and uncover the broader goals and pressures shaping their decisions. Listening builds trust faster than presenting solutions.
2. Share insights with context. AI can generate endless information. What it can’t do is discern what matters most for a specific client in a specific moment. Send a short email connecting a current headline to their industry. Share a regulatory update and explain why it matters. Context, not just content, proves your value.
3. Create personalized experiences. Algorithms can personalize at scale, but true personalization comes from knowing a client as a human being. Tailor your touchpoints. Reference a commonality or shared experience, and keep building those shared moments through invitations to bespoke events and meaningful conversations. Clients remember when they feel known.
4. Build multi-threaded connections. Research shows that major B2B buying decisions often involve 6 to 10 stakeholders. AI can map an org chart, but it can’t build trust with the individuals who make up that chart. Cultivate relationships across the client organization, from decision-makers to influencers, so that your position is durable and your insight is valued.
5. Demonstrate reliability under pressure. When projects go sideways, machines aren’t able to reassure or steady the room. Responsiveness, accuracy, and composure in critical moments earn loyalty that no deliverable alone can secure. Reliability under stress is one of the clearest ways to prove your value.
6. Involve clients in your thought leadership. AI can write white papers, but it can’t create community. Co-author an article with a client. Invite them to speak on a panel. Ask them to react to an emerging trend. Involvement deepens loyalty by elevating them alongside you.
7. Show appreciation consistently. A chatbot can generate polished thank you notes, but only you can express appreciation that feels genuine. A brief voicemail after a successful project, a personalized LinkedIn comment celebrating their achievement, or a thoughtful follow-up months later all send the same signal: you value the relationship as much as the revenue.
The compounding effect of human engagement
Loyalty isn’t earned through flawless deliverables. It grows from consistent, human-centered engagement — when clients feel understood, remembered, and genuinely valued. Technical excellence builds credibility, but empathy, curiosity, and connection build longevity. As AI accelerates the pace of work, emotional intelligence becomes the defining skills that keeps relationships strong.
Final thoughts
Expertise may open doors, but human connections keep them open. The professionals who engage with intention and lead with empathy won’t just survive the AI era, they’ll define it.
Apply these seven strategies and your human skills become your greatest competitive advantage. Delivering the work may get you in the door. Engagement, trust, and loyalty keep you there and protect your practice in a market where machines only get better at the work itself.
About the Author
David Ackert is co-founder and CEO of PipelinePlus. He’s a highly regarded business development thought leader and has pioneered revenue acceleration programs for hundreds of professional services firms around the globe. He has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, the National Review, the Daily Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and others, and his Market Leaders Podcast has won several JD Supra Reader’s Choice Awards. His new book, The Short List: How to Drive Business Development by Focusing on the People Who Matter Most (Greenleaf Book Group, January 28, 2025), is an Amazon bestseller and Gold Winner of the 2025 Nonfiction Book Awards. Learn more at PipelinePlus.com.