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ON THE MOVE THOMAS LUCEY, PE NAMED DIRECTOR OF LAND DEVELOPMENT AT ATWELL Consulting, engineering, and construction services firm Atwell, LLC announced that Thomas Lucey, PE has been appointed director of land development, Cleveland, Ohio. Lucey will provide strategic leadership support to the Cleveland office and operational teams while promoting and expanding Atwell’s services into emerging geographic markets throughout the Midwest. Lucey has nearly three decades of experience

leading and managing multidiscipline entities of engineers, architects, contractors, and vendors on development projects around the country. Prior to joining Atwell, he was a Principal and Founder of Sunzera, a regional solar energy development firm based in New York, where he built and led teams of engineers and contractors for the development of private solar energy facilities. Lucey also has been an owner of a successful engineering and architecture firm focused on land development projects with regional and national owners

and developers. Further, he was a senior associate at a large multi-discipline/multi-office engineering company where he focused on private land development in the Midwest, Mid- Atlantic and Northeast regions. “We are excited to have Tom join our team,” said Atwell Vice President Bill Anderson. “His land development knowledge and experience and ability in tackling complex, multi-faceted projects at the local, regional and national level will serve our clients well.”

TED MAZIEJKA, from page 11

contract requires hard copy delivery, you can still email, as it will expedite collections in the future), uploading invoices into the client’s accounts payable portal, and other electronic delivery methods. Depending on what your contract terms with your client are, your firm’s expectation is either paid upon receipt, payment in 30, 45, or 60 days, or paid when paid by the prime. Your financial team’s ability to predict the cash inflow relies on the consistent delivery of payment by your clients. Payment by ACH or wire transfer is more common and allevi- ates the “check is in the mail” excuse, since it is immediate (relatively speaking). We all could fill a book on the interest- ing excuses that we have heard about when the payment is going to arrive. Many clients, on smaller invoices, are using credit card pay- ment up front. Working with a recent client, more than 60 percent of the invoices that they were chasing were less than $2,500, and instead of wasting time on the billing, chasing, and sometimes legal costs, they now request full payment on a credit card before the work commences! This has resulted in a decrease in the chase of these items. Using express delivery can be cost effective based on the value of the payment. If your client owes you thousands of dollars, the cost of a FedEx is going to be much less than the expendi- ture of project manager or principal in charge time-at-billing rates. A CMO of a major airline engineering group called a client that had open invoices in the millions of dollars and re- quested a payment. The client’s CFO indicated that a payment would be prepared that afternoon. The CMO indicated that she would personally pick up the payment, requested a jet, and made a personal visit to the CFO. Not only did she pick up the payment, but she also had a discussion of future work, and a few months later, a large order was submitted to the CMO. The power of a face-to-face meeting or a phone call are approaches that used to be SOP. The integration of electronic tools has modified our collective behavior and interaction. The soft skills of communication and client connection are critical skills to develop with your younger staff, who will ultimately fill the PM and PIC roles. Train your staff in the art of communication, take them on client visits and show them what the power of a face-to- face visit can achieve. TED MAZIEJKA is a Zweig Group financial and management consultant. Contact him at tmaziejka@zweiggroup.com.

opportunities might be available, and even arranging a lunch or dinner meeting, facilitate potential new business opportu- nities. A variety of studies have shown that frequent and consistent client contact resulted in the client’s perceiving that you, the consultant, were more valuable as the project came to a close rather than at the very beginning of the project. These fre- quent client touches were not lengthy, but rather short out- reaches that conveyed a genuine interest. “Depending on how well your firm manages the client contractual agreements, how clearly the contract terms are reviewed with your clients, and what expectations are set and managed by the technical team, you and the financial team are either seeing the flow of cash or your firm continues to be squeezed for cash.” 2)Pay your client a visit. Another radical concept in the age of instant electronic communication? Meet with your client face to face! Depending on where your clients are, how easy it is to meet with them, and your understanding of your access to them, either a scheduled meeting or a drop-in to review and make the collection visit can sometimes deliver interesting results. A COO of a large environmental firm finished up a meeting with a client and noticed on the building directory that anoth- er client that he had not spoken to in awhile was in the same building. Calling his controller, he found out this client had a large open invoice. The COO paid an impromptu visit on the client’s CEO, was met with a hearty handshake, and spent the next hour re- viewing not just the open invoice, which the CEO apologized for (the client CEO had her CFO wire the funds during their meeting), but they discussed new opportunities that were on the client’s horizon. That impromptu visit resulted in a stream of new projects! 3)Use radical pickup or delivery methods. Most of the clients we work with are currently seeing invoice delivery methods that have replaced the U.S. Postal Service. Standard operat- ing procedure has become the emailing of all invoices (if your

THE ZWEIG LETTER November 28, 2016, ISSUE 1177

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