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F R O M T H E F O U N D E R
These five points will get you thinking differently about how you interact with potential clients in the future. Working with a new potential client
I f you are like most principals or senior people in AEC firms, you are likely to be regularly talking with new potential clients. But have you ever really slowed down enough to think about whether you are doing that properly? Are you really getting all of the information you need to decide whether or not any specific potential client is one you should consider working for? And are you setting the stage to not only close the deal with those you do want to work with, but also to have a healthy working relationship with these people once they do become clients?
Mark Zweig
2)Do some research. Have you checked inside your firm to find out if you have ever worked for this client in the past – either where they are now or at a different client organization? If your company has worked with, or tried to work with this client before, how did it go? Did you talk with the specific individuals in your firm who dealt with the client? What did you learn? It’s amazing how rarely this step is taken when it is such valuable information to have! And how about the business’s D&B credit worthiness rating? If that’s bad, you may want to pass. Or their Better Business Bureau rating? Or a check to see if they are involved in any litigation and if so, what kind? How about doing a Google search? Have you looked up the people on LinkedIn? If not,
I think these are important questions, and these interactions need a lot more thought than they typically get. Here is some of my thinking on this subject: 1)Not every client is one that you want. Some clients won’t appreciate you. They won’t understand why you are not giving your time away for free. Some have a bad reputation for a reason, such as they don’t pay their bills promptly. Some will mistreat your people. Some will refuse to deal with anyone else in your company but you. Some are just difficult to work with for other reasons. The point is this: You should not work with any client that you know has a high probability of being difficult to work with. They will make your life miserable. It’s not worth it.
See MARK ZWEIG, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 4, 2021, ISSUE 1411
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