Sunday, June 12, 2005

Projects vs. Clients

In this space I have on several occasions mentioned that I'm much more focused today on bringing BURRIS projects rather than clients.

"Clients" suggests longer term relationships, and having been in the business of thinking that every customer would likely work with us forever, I thought there was little need for us to have a planned new business effot. I told others that the best new business program we could have would be to grow our clients' businesses 15-20% per year; then, theoretically, we would grow 15-20% per year.

But that was a theoretical world, and it just doesn't work that way any longer - for BURRIS or for anyone in our business, maybe in any business.

I bring this up again because last week I was in front of a significant new business prospect, and I went through the distinction I make between the terms in the title of this post. You know what a "client" is, but a "project," I told him, has a beginning and an end. It is likely to have its own marketing objectives and maybe even a budget for execution.

I told this prospect that we strive now for projects, not clients, because the illusion of "forever" isn't, well, an illusion any longer.

"But we're looking for a long term relationship," he said, "not a project relationship." What did I have to say about that?

I stood by my comments, but I added something that went like this:

"Nothing would make me happier than to work with your company for a long, long time. But if we do, it will be because we execute every project, meeting your objectives, schedule and budget. So I prefer to think that you'll continue to work with us as long as we do a good job for you on every project."

No illusions there.

I haven't heard yet if we're hired. But I'm looking forward to the first project.

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