Marketing

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Winning Your Client’s Loyalty

A colleague, who was 15 years my senior, provided me with the best client service advice I ever received. I always admired the quality of his business relationships. Although his clients seemed to have a tendency to be demanding, they were also his personal friends who were loyal and negotiated winning contracts. One day, I asked him how he did it, and the answer stuck with me.

His advice: Always work to get your client promoted to a higher job level. Study what their bosses’ or organization’s values are and then help your client deliver them. Initially, don’t divulge this goal to your clients, but once successful progress has been achieved, let them know your objective. I have never had a client say; “Oh no, don’t do that!”

At first glance, one might say this concept is no different than delivering the scope of work on time, on budget and with the best quality. But these goals should be a “given,” whereas this promotion theory goes much farther. Over the years, I’ve found my clients could get credit by solving issues or enhancing an idea outside the scope of work. Finding the necessary characteristics to your client’s success takes work. You cannot initially be so direct as to ask, but by building a relationship and studying the way others attained promotion, you can better understand the values of the individuals within the organization who are responsible for those promotions.

For example, one project I worked on was relatively straightforward in scope, but I realized that my client’s boss wanted to be recognized in the industry for innovation. As a result, I wrote a technical paper on the project and convinced my client to submit a paper, co-authored by […]

By |December 1st, 2014|Career Lessons|0 Comments

Lasting Impressions

Over my career, I have witnessed two types of cultures in service-based companies when it comes to how they think and relate to ex-employees. This particular cultural attribute makes the difference between good and bad company reputations. Many of my friends talk about their children having a “half-full” or “half-empty” attitude toward life. The same is true of companies in how they deal with past employees.

In service companies, the culture relative to handling of ex-employees is very important and noticeable, because the whole inventory and asset factory of these companies is people who go home at the end of every day. Service company reputations are built on how they handle people. The attitudes can span generations of employees and set their engrained personalities. They either end up being positive and appreciative for past contributions of other colleagues, or negative and critical for anyone not regarded as a future contributor. As easily as reputations are built, they can be quickly destroyed.

Great companies celebrate and honor past contributions of present and past employees. They realize that previous generations and past performance have built the company and client base for which the current management and employee populations are now beneficiaries. These companies have alumni connections, encourage future participation, celebrate departures, offer alumni websites, plan reunions, write reference letters and create links long after they have left the firm. They don’t just do it because of concern that a past employee could become a client, but because they are a real, caring and appreciative community. They see the glass as half full, and really care about people other than themselves.

In these excellent companies, when a person leaves for another job, they fully realize that this individual contributed to their […]

By |November 1st, 2014|Career Lessons|0 Comments

Leave Something Rule

Other than reading offices, it is key to always bring and leave something behind.  This concept essentially means that, after the first visit when you have the opportunity to study the space and engage in client conversation, you always bring something the next trip, relating to the previous one.  It could be a book, a research article, a magazine article, a small gift, a photograph—something small but thoughtful.

The purpose is to pick up the conversation where it last left off.  This symbolizes to the client that you not only listened, but were affected enough to continue thinking about the topic, even after the meeting ended. Some time may have passed, but you remember where you left the discussion and are ready to re-engage. A physical reminder of your visit will linger long after your discussion.  As you finish your second visit, study the office further and think about the third visit’s ‘leave behind’

Now in adopting this technique, there are several rules relative to what not to leave behind.  Obviously, you never leave a gift of such value that the client is uncomfortable or forced to make a judgment decision not to accept it.  Having a client reject a gift is a disaster and reflects on your bad judgment. If you don’t know about the client’s gift rules, a good rule of thumb is to never give anything valued over $25, even if permissible. In my experience, most of the leave behind gifts were paper.  The second rule, is to avoid gifts with a logo on them, except in the case of a research paper.  You do not want the client branded with “your” stuff, especially in the eyes of his peers or subordinates.  To be […]

By |February 1st, 2014|Career Lessons|0 Comments

Reading An Office

When I first joined James M. Montgomery in 1976, there was a process where new project managers were indoctrinated into the company.  It was not by a class or some literature, it was on-the-job training. You would be paired with a more experienced project manager, who acted as your trainer for six months to a year.  Your role as a junior project participant was to assist on assignments, working with others as a team.  In this three part series, I want to share with you the lessons that I learned from this training experience, which have served me well throughout my career. The first is “reading a client’s office.”

To learn this, you must repeatedly visit a client in their office.  As I was in the midst of this training, the car ride generally served as preparation time and, later on, the return trip was a debrief. I was told not to say much during the visit, just observe.  In the debriefing, I was grilled on what I saw and asked to think about what it meant in both developing a relationship and delivering the project.

The client’s office is a physical reflection of their value system, their points of pride, their interests and hobbies, their families, their accomplishments, their organizational idiosyncrasies and, in general, a window into who they truly are.  Nothing could be more revealing if you would just pay attention, look and, later, interpret I was required to memorize everything: pictures, diplomas, trinkets, books, positioning of the chairs or tables, tidiness of paperwork, art or pictures, equipment (electronic or printers), phones and colors.  All were there for a purpose and a reflection of the person you visited. I was also asked to keep a […]

By |August 13th, 2013|Career Lessons|0 Comments