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Making the unattainable attainable Industry experts share tactics for handling clients who have impractical expectations and/ or requests that will take a project way over budget. B E S T P R A C T I C E S
❚ ❚ Are other parties significantly impacted by the suc- cess/failure of this project? The result of that discussion might guide the client to alternative solutions that: ❚ ❚ Modify the solution to focus directly on the primary objective, without expanding the scope more than necessary. ❚ ❚ Identify prospective partners who would benefit from the same project and possibly share the cost. ❚ ❚ Help firm to understand how the project might be achievable in progressive steps, or in sequential phases that can be completed over time as budget is available. At Timmons Group (Richmond, VA), a 330-per- son multi-disciplined engineering and technology firm, Steve Hostetler, principal, says that it is not uncommon for clients to have unreasonable ex- pectations on a project, most often related to con- struction cost or schedule. “Our job as a consultant is to explain the facts, even if they don’t want to hear them,” he says. In preparation for this discussion, Hostetler says they try to do the following: “Granted, some clients are more difficult than others, but if you can step them through the thought process and get them to trust that you are truly doing everything possible to make their vision a reality, they’ll appreciate you for your efforts and be a repeat client because you didn’t just tell them, ‘It can’t be done.’” “Develop alternatives that allow them to still meet their overall project goals, just in a different fashion than they expected at the outset.”
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
S o, you have a client who has asked for some- thing that is either completely impractical or out of budget. What now? How do you gently steer your client back to Earth without crushing their dreams? Jeff Mazanec, a senior project manager at R.A. Smith National Inc. (Brookfield, WI), a 186-per- son multidisciplinary civil engineering firm, says this happens often. “A good first step is to gain a better understanding of the client’s primary goal and objective. What is it about their unattainable goal that they really need or want?” HAVE AN OPEN DISCUSSION. “A good first step is to gain a better understanding of the client’s primary goal and objective. What is it about their unattainable goal that they really need or want? Are there other ways to achieve that primary goal, or at least make progress towards achieving it?” he says. Often, people will lock themselves into a single so- lution so strongly that it seems to be the only way to achieve the goals. “We all need to really think through the core ob- jective and other possible options,” Mazanec says. “Sometimes just verbalizing those thoughts leads to a broader context/perspective needed to see oth- er solutions for less cost and with fewer barriers. This discussion might also identify risks or uncover the opportunity for unintended results.” Key questions to initiate this discussion might in- clude: ❚ ❚ What is the most important result you expect this project to achieve? ❚ ❚ Have others successfully met similar challenges? What lessons can we learn from their experience? ❚ ❚ Would this project generate side benefits? How would you describe them? ❚ ❚ Does not pursuing this project increase risk or gen- erate negative impacts? How would you describe them?
See STEER CLIENT, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER January 18, 2016, ISSUE 1135
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