Getting Naked

A book with the title "Getting Naked" was given to me to read by my ex-Boss and Mentor, Himanshu. Till date, i think it is the best book I have read on how to consult our Clients. The focus of the book is Client Trust and Loyalty. In one of my earlier blogs, I have spoken on the topic of 'trust' and how do we build that. This book takes that logic to another level and showcases that regardless of what service you provide, these principles will help you develop stronger relationships. But remember authenticity is at the core. If you cannot be authentic, and do lip service to these principles, people will see through you. Let us take a look at these principles :

a) Always Consult instead of Sell - Walk in to the Client's set up and start telling them what changes they can make. Do not worry about the fact that you may be giving away too much IP or the fact that this is scope creep...just provide additional help. The Client will start to rely on you and call on you whenever they need a sounding board or any advice. Isn't that a good place to be.  One of my partners actually lived by this principle. I remember landing once with my entire team at the Client's office, even without a signed contract in place. I know that at first i felt a little irritated, but you know what, his dedication paid off. The CEO would have never gone to anyone else, especially as we were so keen to start work.

b) Give away the Business: Related closely to the previous one.  Consult even before they have become a  paying client. 

c) Tell the kind truth: This one is tough; this is about telling your clients, the facts but in an empathetic way... offer help to sort through the situation. At one of our clients, we were struggling with one of the Client's team member; the person was not just able to contribute and instead forcing us to take heat. We raised the matter to the Supervisor suggesting that  it might be good for the Supervisor to do some in person mentoring, in addition offering the support of one of our colleauges to help aid the project in the meanwhile. The Client got the message and we saw improvements immediately.

d) Enter the danger: This is the best, it means simply countering any situation confidently, dealing with the elephant in the room. Present it as an observation instead of an accusation, maybe present it first to your client confidante, before bringing it to the larger group. This will help enable the success of your long term project relationship.

e) Ask dumb questions and make dumb suggestions and make mistakes : I am all for data based consulting, but sometimes, you need to put every thought out there, without worrying about how you will be percieved. Don't worry about making an error, you will be better for it.

f) Take a bullet for the Client: Sometimes, you have to take one for the team, be it Client or our internal teams. We were once presenting a key deliverable on the Competency Framework to the Client Stakeholder team. One of our key SMEs, cross questioned us in front of the audience, but we could not afford to call it out, as our project team credibility would have been eroded. We decided to take one for the team, and handle the problem separately; and we sure did :-)

g) Make everything about the Client: The relationship is not about you impressing the client with your skills. It is about them, you have to hone their skills and make them successful. Remember they always know more about their business, than you will.

h) You have to honor what the Client does: if you cannot, then pass on the work. It is not worth doing something for a client you cannot respect regardless of the money.

i) Do the dirty work: Do not hesitate doing every small thing, everything counts as a successful implementation. If it means photocopying, co-ordinating....just get it done.

I have tried using some of these principles in the past, needless to say they are very powerful, more than we can imagine, I recommend that you read the book !