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Romancing the Client
They complain and pester. They ask for the world and expect to get it (ahead of schedule and under budget). If you've ever been a for-hire project manager, you know them too well: clients. Here are some client-management techniques to save your sanity. And for in-house project managers, many of these may help your stakeholder relationships, too.
Ah, clients. They bitch and moan. They complain. They pester. They ask for the world and expect you to give it — twice, often ahead of schedule and under budget. And they have every right to. After all, that’s what they pay you for.
As project managers, not all of us work in-house in a company large enough to afford the cutting edge of project management. Some of us — indeed, a large minority — work as freelance project managers or consultants. We have all the headaches of "normal" project managers — the deadlines, stress, and pressure — and the morass of client management as well.
This article, excerpted from the book Herding Chickens: Innovative Techniques for Project Management (Sybex, 2004), is the third in an ongoing series on novel ways to approach the management of projects, featuring tips not typically taught in training and education courses. The first installment, "Reading People" (April 7, 2005), focused on reading — and better understanding — people through body language. The second, "Talking Notes" (April 21, 2005),…
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