The Seven Principles of Professional Services: A field guide for successfully walking the consulting tightrope

by Shane Anastasi

The best practices and processes prescribed by your firm are a crucial roadmap to success. Failing to follow them will only hamper your engagement and your career progression. You should demonstrate your value by using, and when necessary, improving the existing processes rather than circumventing them.

In addition, the customer may use your failure to follow a prescribed process as a reason for them not to pay for the services they received from you.

Some people may behave erratically, or they may become terse, even to the point of yelling or cursing. Be prepared to handle this situation, and focus your team on resolving the issue rather than assigning blame.

However, the sweeter pot is always the easier and more profitable repeat business environments.

The second dynamic, is that you have the ability to prescribe a solution to the customer even when they may tell you that they want something different.

When an expert speaks, people listen.

These people are however under a lot of pressure. They are being paid to achieve the greatest possible outcome within the budget they have been allocated, and this pressure is often transferred directly to you.

Do not get drawn into overly emotional

disagreements and don’t let emotional pleas force you into an action you know is ill advised.

I have often found when done correctly, a simple email or phone call from one executive to another can reverse a poor customer decision.

While you should listen to everyone courteously, do not get distracted by people who are trying to win big but have no stake in the game.

Realizing that my customer was outsourcing their future success to me turned my frustration into empathy.

Ask questions Be engaged with their business Constructive recommendations

Upon asking questions, it is equally important to listen to their answers.

The first version of done is defined by the contract that initiates the engagement. Hence, if you have started working without a contract, then you have already gone against this principle.

Don’t let the customer intimidate you into doing work that is not stated in the contract. It may seem like just a small thing at the time, but if it snowballs and gets out of control, then you will be in the hot seat. All of these requests and variations to the original version of done need to be handled through a process called Change Management.

The issue was that we were asking if the customer wanted to move to serial approvals instead of prescribing that they should.

I cannot tell you how often I have come across customers that expect the service provider to write these tests when in fact they are clearly the customer’s responsibility. While having the service provider write the tests would be easier for the customer, a service provider will never anticipate the definition of done sufficiently.

Too often, customers arrive at the kick off expecting the services team to perform a quick magic show and immediately bring clarity to a complex problem. If you believe you are at risk of this, it is wise to have a kick off preparation meeting with the customer to set clear expectations about the objectives of the kick off meeting.