The Elusive Client I’ve been in business for 16 years now, so I’ve seen my share of clients, everything from mom and pop start-ups to the biggest names in the world of global capitalism. With this post, I am starting a new series called “From the Trenches.” I will endeavor to share my real-world experiences as a consultant in human resources and training. I do this for two reasons: 1) to give back to my profession and those coming into it as a way of expressing my gratitude for a wonderful career as a consultant; 2) to stimulate discussion among my colleagues and clients about ways to improve what we do. To the latter end, I am starting with a topic that is all too familiar – the elusive client. By this I mean someone who expresses enough interest to generate a consultant’s attention and time, but who never actually signs a contract. We consultants have all chased elusives, much to our chagrin. It’s not that I set out to waste time on a cul de sac client. At first, things look promising. Proposals are generated and met with interest. Meetings are held and presentations are made. I remember one client who I wooed for 14 months, working and reworking proposals to meet ever-changing requirements, making three presentations to various management committees only to be told at the end that they had decided not to address their management training needs at that time, despite obvious evidence of the need. From that and many other experiences, I have learned the following techniques for dealing with elusive clients: 1. Push for a Decision Don’t let a client procrastinate forever. Give them a deadline and ask for a Yes or No. If they are not ready at this time, you can always revisit their situation later. 2. Put on the Back Burner If a decision is not forthcoming, I put the client in inactive mode. This means that I will not spend a lot of time at the moment on this client, but will revisit from time to time to see if things have changed. 3. Write Off I’ve had some prospective clients that are just too much trouble, far more than they are worth. I put them in the “Never Again” file. They negotiate hard to get the cheapest rate and then pile on the extra work to extract every last ounce of flesh. I chalk those clients up to experience and the school of hard knocks.
