Outsourcing Leadership Blog

First Impressions: Make a Good One

Posted by Randy Vetter on Friday, 29 January 2010 21:34

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Categories: Strategy

Unlike others perhaps, I didn’t learn the adage “you never have a second chance to make a good first impression” until I had graduated from college and was in my early working years. I know for sure there have been times I did not put my best foot forward. It may have been that I was just too nervous to know how best to make that good first impression.

Over the last year or so I’ve dealt with dozens of service providers both onshore and offshore who have had the opportunity to make a really good first impression. For some reason, several have made it more difficult for themselves in the next scheduled interaction with the client because they came off as looking not as good as they really are to the client. I am not sure if they didn’t take the time to plan for the meeting or couldn’t muster the right resources to engage with the client.

I know this is going to sound a bit too trite… but it’s the simple things that make the difference to clients. Let me cite three that stand out:

1) Take notes - Sounds a bit ridiculous but I have had clients who after an interaction came away with the impression that the people they met with were not really interested in their business. I believe this was quite to the contrary, however, there sat five executives who just listened, nodded, but didn’t take a single note. Taking notes demonstrates you are interested in what the client is saying.

2) Engage - More often than not I’ll see three or four people attending a meeting and one or two of them do all the talking. After they leave, the client is not sure why the others were brought along. Everyone should have a defined role to play and needs to contribute to the topic. Otherwise leave them behind.

3) Push back - I think sometimes service providers go too far in agreeing with the client. We had one client recently who told a provider, “Tell us what we need to hear, not what you think we want to hear.” The clients I have worked with want to hear the truth. If you don’t agree with what they say, tell them. But do it in such a way that you can factually back up your position, not just provide an opinion.

I realize these sound very trivial, but whether you are a service provider seeking new business or interacting with your own senior executives, all three apply. I have to remind myself every time I meet a new client or service provider that I too am held to the same standard of making a good first impression. Make yours count.

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Comments

#3 Wally Hogan 2010-03-04 09:09 Randy - these are excellent points, and while they can seem simple or obvious, they aren't necessarily (as you point out) implemented in practice. The service relationship must be built on trust. These are fundamental building blocks in the road to establish trust. Thanks for the reminders. Quote

#2 Daryl James 2010-02-22 16:15 Randy, I don't think these are trite or trivial. It is always the basics that make or break a business, whether that business has 1 employee or 100,000 employees. Good article. Quote

#1 Pranay Shukla 2010-02-10 09:21 I absolutely agree with what Randy has stated in this blog. These basic processes like taking notes, engaging with the client and being realisitic about delivery capability surely go a long way. Providers have a tendency of accepting even unreasonable client demands in order to get the contract however this exposes them to various unwanted kind of situations in future and impacts the health of relationship. I have seen all these small sounding issues causing irreversible damage to the overall relationship. In fact we coach our clients as well as providers to avoid such pitfalls. Quote

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