Putting Experience To Work

Some say that “Common Sense Ain’t So Common” which may have something to do with Professional Courtesy going by the wayside. Professional Courtesy is common sense. The world is getting smaller as we all grow older, our economy is global and the chances of running into the same business contacts more than once has increased exponentially.

More and more as time is going by, it seems since the late 1990’s, people are not returning calls or emails and it has become common place. It used to be, that people respected other’s time and expertise, now it is more about the knee jerk need, and when the job is cancelled or the need has passed (sometimes because it is taken care of internally at the company), the courtesy of a call to cancel the need or an email saying “we found someone else”, seems to be too hard to do.

The next time you run into that person whose call you didn’t return, or email you ignored, how happy or responsive do you think s/he will be. Come on people, put yourself in the place of the person you are not being responsive to. The U.S. economy is recovering, how will you fare when the company with the best people who give the best responsiveness to your need no longer work with you because of your inability to pick up the phone or write an email. Maybe you think that there is a plethora of talent out there just waiting for your call. The truth is, the talent is getting pickier and pickier the better and more skilled they are. Do yourself a favor, be courteous, it pays.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I still think that a phone is the most effective negotiating tool and is the fastest and easiest way to resolve a contract negotiation.

I don’t know why it is, but there are people (sometimes clients, sometimes vendors) who think it is more important to document a negotiation, than it is to complete the negotiation and they insist on solely using email to communicate. I firmly believe that once an agreement has been made, it is imperitive for the terms to be written out and approved by both parties. My contractual preference (after watching too much court tv) is to get a comprehensive written contract signed by both parties with the specifics of the agreement.

I have had more than one experience in recent years with clients who are usually harried, their company is usually experiencing a growth spurt and they claim to not have time to read all their emails. Yet, they need my help or the help of one of my vendors and cannot find a minute to just pick up the phone to quickly negotiate for the services.

It is commonly known that emails are generally read as “negative”, especially when there is a negotiation going on and one or both people involved are emotionally attached to the outcome. See the article by the American Psychological Association. This factor keeps email negotiations very low on my list for favorable contractual outcomes.

My most recent experience with this phenomenon ended yesterday. It must have taken the client a total of an hour to write all of the emails he sent to me over the past two days, yet he insisted he was swamped. I suggested a 5 minute phone conversation which would have put his and my concerns to rest, but he would not return my phone call. We eventually resolved the issues via multiple (an not so pleasant emails from his side) emails and we came to an agreement, at which time I wrote him an email outlining our agreement, he agreed, signed and faxed it over, and the project started today.

The point I am getting to is that during the massive amount of email exchanges, he asserted all kinds of unfounded offensive remarks. In my opinion, barraging the opposing party with accusations never moves a situation forward, it usually stymies or kills the negotiation leaving bad feelings on both sides. Bargaining via email, is never a good idea. My suggestion is to Pick Up The Phone and then seal the deal in email. It makes for better partnerships and relationships.

In my next blog, I will address points regarding diffusing hostile or aggressive situations, either via email, by phone or in-person(which usually doesn’t happen, since most people read body language pretty well).

The Past
In 1999 after doing the “build a business” thing for 15 years with my former company - Freelance Hotline in Chicago, I left the corporate structure norm behind. Because of my natural tendencies toward care taking, and the fact I did not have children, my business became family and the workers, my “familial” responsibility. I am not saying that this was a necessarily healthy way to grow a business, but heck, I didn’t know any better and when I started the company at 24 years of age, I knew nothing of what it would become.

In 1999, middle age was upon me, and I knew I had to break the mold of caretaking, because, well, it was breaking me. I sold the company to one of my employees. (I also sold my car, my house, and moved. I know what mid life crisis is… a new start to the second half of life).

Fast forward to 2005.

I decided to get back into the game doing small business consulting; it was great but not enough of a money maker, so I took on creative placement and project management too. The difference? I work from home, all of my people work virtually from their offices or home. And thanks to Basecamp, all projects are worked on virtually.

Seasoned Professionals
Because I am working with seasoned pros that I have known for years, or I know through someone I have known for years, working virtually is mostly a breeze. Once the team members get used to the online software, everything pretty much flows. The clients love it too, they can see each stage of the project and where everyone fits and responsibility is not in question. Love it, love it, love it!!! No employee hassles, only the fruits of our combined labor.

What Do Clients Get?
Control over their project(s), lower project rates, and a team that shows up in person for presentations as necessary. Happy clients, happy team, happy me.

More On Virtual Teaming:
Making Work-at-Home Work for Everyone, on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge 
Team Building for Virtual Workplace, by Mike Dempster, in Business Edge

While working with hundreds of clients over the past 24 years, I have found that the relationships which are most comfortable for my team and especially for our clients, are based on partnership. You may be thinking either: well duh! or you’re asking yourself if you truly have this partnership experience with your clients.

“Partnerships” as opposed to “working relationships” come out of a deeper desire on both sides of the equation - the supplier and client - to create a true understanding of what the requirements are for the client company and how the client wants the product or service delivered. Each and every client has individual needs and requirements, some are dependent on corporate directives, but I have found that most are personal to the individual client contact. So, therein lies the need to create and maintain a deeper and connected relationship.

For those of you reading this who think that a deeper understanding of your client is not of interest to you, I suspect that you are in a “one-time sale only” business and therefor this does not apply to you. If however, you are in a business maintained and grown through your clients, there may be some pointers for you here.

Many of us subscribe to the idea that it is far less expensive to keep clients you have and grow with them than it is to keep finding new clients. Assuming this is true, let’s look at how it is possible to create longer lasting relationships with clients you already have.

Example
I recently won a new client through an introduction from one of my longtime clients: Rob Engelman. We’ll talk about Rob more in later posts. The client is a very large home improvement product manufacturer and they have a newly formed marketing department - about 2 years old. The whole staff met with me and it was clear from their questions that they were not happy with their current design group and were looking for a better solution. Here are some of the questions I asked them during our first meeting.

1. Who have you been using for your creative development for your products?
2. What have they done that you really like. Is their creative amazing? Is their customer service to your liking?
3. How long have you worked with them?
4. What don’t you like about your relationship with them? (Listen carefully to this answer as it is very important - you will learn not only what the supplier is not delivering - you also find out what the client’s real needs are). Ask for more information about this so that you get a very clear idea of expectations.
5. What are you looking for now that you were not getting?

Once I have a clear picture in my mind of where they are coming from, what the expectations and frustrations are, I then ask for information on upcoming projects that my team and I can look forward to bidding on.

Engage
So, the partnership begins, there is information, clarification and a request from me regarding potential work. The part of this that tends to deepen the relationship into a partnership is not only my laying out my capabilities, and the client laying out their needs, the true connection - I believe - comes from a true concern on my part for the client’s success and even more important, that the we both understand that we must co-create the project/relationship in order for the project to become successful.

Story: This morning I went to get coffee at the local Starbuck’s and the guy in line in front of me had a familiar face. After getting my traditional latte, I walked up to him and said “you work at the restaurant down the street don’t you?” A nice conversation ensued, and it turns out that he will be leaving his job managing that restaurant this spring to open his own restaurant in Evanston.

So, I took the opportunity to let him know that my company does graphic design and websites, and we could help him not only design his menus, but help with his website. I also mentioned that I do small business consulting, and would you believe that he needs a business plan for his investors. He and I were both happy that we “bumped” into each other. I have a meeting set up with him to go over particulars next week. Selling IS having fun! All I did was say hello to him, with no ulterior motive and something nice came about.

Over the past few years while consulting for various small businesses and when talking with freelancers, the abhorence of the “7 letter word” - SELLING has come up time and again.

What Selling is NOT
When most people talk to me about selling their product or service, what they always describe are salespeople who are “pushing” things on them. Kind of like SPAM which shows up in your email uninvited, or that person calling you from a call center offering you something you neither want nor need. This is a classic old fashioned form of selling - but in today’s market, I am not certain that it is a truly successful option for individuals with a focused market for their product or service. I don’t consider the above to be “selling” I consider it “pushing”.

What Selling IS
The type of selling that I have found to be most effective for my creative and consulting services is: relationship based interaction. When you tell someone about what you do, and then you ask them what they do, then talk a little, you find out very quickly if there is a common ground and perhaps one of you needs the service or product the other provides. This is FUN! You get to talk to someone new, find out something you may not have known before and open the door to a new relationship - hopefully gainfully for you both. Then you need to Close the sale. More about that soon.

This is my first published blog. I decided to get on the bandwagon… it’s time. I plan to post information germane to both running a small business as well as interesting graphic design/web information garnered throughout the day. If you wish to contact me, please email me at ardath@contractcreatives.com.

Thank you for stopping by.

Ardath