Who are your clients?

A business is an abstraction.

A business is a legal entity on a piece of paper in a filing

cabinet in Companies House.

Your clients aren't pieces of paper in  Companies House; they are the individuals that

represent the pieces of paper.

The profit motive

Business motives are easy to understand, because they’re always the same: the objective is always to increase profit,

via increased revenues and reduced operating costs.

There are other objectives, such as increased market share or reduced churn. But they are strategies that drive the

over-arching purpose: to make a PROFIT.

The people motive

People’s motives are difficult to understand, because they’re never the same:

we are complex beings.

The human brain is the most complex structure we know of. We don’t even understand ourselves.

(Another)*

*It’s the last one, promise

You can’t teach chemistry**Unless you’re a chemistry teacher

So what does it mean to build a relationship with a client?

You need to be their most trusted ally, and they need to be your biggest advocate.

We want… everything.

self-actualisation (achieving individual potential)

esteem (from self & others)

belonging (being part of a group; love and affection)

safety (shelter, clothing, health, vitality)

body (breathe, drink, eat, sleep)

An Imperfect World

“If only this world was a clean board of lines and intersections. If only time was a sequence of

considered moves and not a chaos of slippages and blunders.”

From The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

• We underestimate how long things take • We overestimate our own competence • We suffer from cognitive dissonance

Solving problems head on

It’s complicated!

What do you two when two clients from the same organisation - at the same level of seniority - have conflicting objectives?

What do you do when your primary client’s manager pulls rank, and disrupts a project at a critical moment?

What do you do when your client says one thing and does another?

What do you do when you suspect your client doesn’t care about the project and wants you to tick boxes for them?