Turn Down Projects but Retain the Customers – Part 1
Posted by Brad Egeland
This is a tricky one, but it does happen. A client comes to you with a need or a problem to resolve or work that just needs to be done. They may be a past client or they may be a completely new potential project customer. At any rate, for the focus of this article let’s assume they are approaching you with work that you eventually decide isn’t the right work for your consulting business or project management expertise. How do you do it? How do you say, “It’s not you, it’s me.” And mean it. How do close this chapter of the relationship without ending the relationship?
That’s a tough one. Because we’re all trained to think that there are only so many opportunities out there – especially in the economy we find ourselves in right now. If there are a finite number of opportunities out there, or if we believe that it’s bad karma to close a door rather than make the best of it (as long as it’s a decent fit), then how do we say no? And how do we strategize it so that the client will someday come back to us for something else after we turned them down this time?
To work this in your favor so that you turn them down but leave them wanting more, in this Part 1 we’ll look at the first of three things you absolutely must do….
Give them something they can use now … for free
You’re going to spend at least some time with the customer going over what it is they would like you to do. You’re going to ask some questions. And then, for some reason, you’re going to want out. Maybe the client can’t pay your hourly rate right now. Or maybe you see this project as a potential losing situation – a Titanic that you don’t want to be a part of. Whatever the case, you’re going to learn some things about the project, the customer’s need, and your going to start formulating a solution in your head.
Walking into a Trainwreck – Part 2
Posted by Brad Egeland
In Part 1 of this two-part series on walking into a project customer mess where their plans and expectations don’t meet the real project need we looked at how this happens, how to recognize it, and planning for how to respond. In this Part 2, let’s examine three response scenarios for the customer’s problem.
Scenario #1 – The right solution will cost more / take more time.
This particular scenario usually won’t sit very well with the customer. It’s basically like bringing the customer a change order on a project. Finding out they underestimated and that the real solution will cost more and take more time is bad news to them. They will either question you and wonder if you have the expertise to really know what they need, or they’ll appreciate the fact that you discovered this early on before additional time and money was wasted.
Be sure to back up your proposed solution with detailed findings from your discovery, and a very professionally laid out quote and project timeline for the customer. The more information you can give them about why your findings are different from theirs, the more likely they are to trust your expertise and move forward with your proposed solution.
Scenario #2 – The right solution will cost less / take less time.
This is a difficult one. On the one hand, it will make the customer happy and if the savings is significant they’re not likely to question you too much as long as what you present makes sense and has data to back it up. On the other hand, you lose money and guaranteed work with this scenario. But it’s a call you have to make.
The greedy route of knowing this is the scenario yet proceeding to implement the customer’s proposed solution just so you’re guaranteed more money and more billable time is the wrong route to take and can permanently damage your reputation. If the project goes well, you’ve potentially gained a client for life and a long-term revenue stream.
Walking into a Trainwreck – Part 1
Posted by Brad Egeland
You know the scenario. You sign up a client, have some initial discussions and are handed some high-level requirements for what it is the client wants you to lead or implement for them. Now it’s time to meet with the end users and other subject matter experts (SMEs) to gain further insight into both the problem or issue that is to be resolved and what their actual needs are for the project.
And when you do this, the bottom drops out….
The big picture problem
The customer has brought you in, expects to spend ‘x’ dollars on ‘y’ number of hours to implement their planned solution and have it done by ‘z.’ Really, anytime the customer brings a consultanting project manager in and tells them how much, how long, and what it will take, they’re usually setting themselves up for problems, tunnel vision, and potential failure. As project managers, we all know the project or engagement has to start with real expectations and a draft schedule that you draw up and work from using a collaborative viewing tool such as Seavus’ Project Viewer or some similar PM tool, right?
Customers need to utilize the consultant in this case for discovery as well as solution implementation. Fearing it will cost too much, they fail to see that it can also save them money as well. An expert is an expert. Bring the expert in for the right reasons and let them do their job. That’s why they’re the expert and that’s why the customer needs them.
What went wrong?
The problem, you discover, is that your customer didn’t do enough leg work up front to understand or to truly analyze their current need and potential solution. The experienced IT project manager knows this is often the case with customers. The customer often comes into a project or consulting engagement with a partial understanding of their own issue and a preconceived notion of what the solution should be. That is either based on what feedback they received from their own employees or from what technology they’ve heard about that might take care of their problem.
What we go back to is the question – is the customer always right? The answer as we all know is ‘no.’ The next question is – should we ever tell the customer ‘no.’ That answer is ‘yes.’
Once you start digging and analyzing the current ‘as is’ situation and the customer’s ‘to be’ planned scenario, and you discuss needs, issues, and frustrations with the actual end users and the various SMEs within the company (sometimes these are also the end users), you realize the real problem is different than the perceived problem. Which usually means the solution is different as well.
Are you creating project leaders on your team?
Posted by Elizabeth
Project managers are responsible for teams, and that means we have a responsibility to develop the people in those teams. Project leadership is a hot topic at the moment and as project managers we should also be aware of the leadership responsibilities that come with working on projects.
Unfortunately, in a project environment we can’t be everywhere at once. Sometimes project managers need a holiday, or are just involved in off-site meetings or workshops that mean they can’t answer the phone instantly. Sometimes we leave our phones at home by mistake.
“Leaders cannot leave themselves exposed to situations where employees are unable to make decisions because they cannot get hold of you,” writes Kevin Murray in his book The Language of Leaders: How Top CEOs Communicate to Inspire, Influence and Achieve Results (Kogan Page, 2011). “They have to be empowered to do the right thing when the critical moment arrives.”
Sometimes projects need decisions taken instantly, in response to a risk mitigation activity or a new issue. That is when you need your project team to step up and act in a leadership capacity.
Yes, that’s right. Other members of the project team can be project leaders, not just the project manager. You don’t have to be in charge of a PMO to create leaders. As project managers, we can develop our project team members to become project leaders.
How to create project leaders
“Key to creating leaders is creating a well-understood framework within which leaders can operate,” writes Murray. “The objective is to ensure that people throughout a company understand what the company expects of them, not only in terms of what they need to do but how they should do it. Leaders need to spend a great deal of time trying to ensure that everyone understands what ‘doing the right thing’ really means.” Read more »
Watch Out for Warning Signs
Posted by Brad Egeland
I don’t like to ask for help. I consider it a sign of weakness. I’m an IT project manager and consultant…I should be able to figure it out on my own. If I made a mess, I should be able to clean it up on my own. When I was preparing to go in for rotator cuff surgery, I knew I would have my left arm in a sling for six weeks before starting rehab. So, for three weeks before my surgery I practiced doing most of my daily tasks with one arm – even daily chores like making the bed and folding laundry, etc. My wife thought I was crazy, but she was glad when she didn’t find me pushing my regular tasks back to her already overloaded plate!
Here’s the premise…IT project managers and consultants are leaders and work alone much of the time or as individuals leading teams of professionals. It can be out of pride, out of ego, out of necessity, whatever. The fact is we’re usually on our own, leading our own way, promoting our own work, and making our own decisions. Succeeding or failing on our own efforts. Sometimes we have a team. Often we’re borrowing team members from our clients and directing their efforts. But we usually aren’t out there asking for help. We don’t rely on or want daily interaction with a manager or director. Likewise, it’s not always easy to ask for help or even how to recognize when you should. Are we really equipped to look for and understand the warning signs that say we need help?
Four warning signs that things may not be going well
Client is becoming more involved / asking more questions. You were cruising along on the engagement and all seemed well. Suddenly your client has become much more heavily involved in the day-to-day aspects of the project you’re leading. They’re asking lots of questions, requiring more frequent status updates, and getting involved in the smallest of decisions that you need to make. They’re not trying to slow you down. Someone at the top on the client’s side has forced this hand out of some perceived concern with your ability to deliver.
Client has assigned someone to shadow you. If you suddenly find yourself with a client-side project manager who seems to be joined at the hip with you, you’ve probably been tagged as unreliable to some degree and for some reason by your client. You may have made a decision that they didn’t agree with or you may not be communicating well enough or often enough with them. For whatever reason, they have become somewhat uncomfortable with you and your consulting and are working to ‘protect’ their interests. Be concerned because it’s your reputation that’s on the line. It’s probably best to call a face-to-face with your client-side sponsor and figure out what’s happened to cause them to lose confidence.
