Winning And Managing Clients Remotely

Working with clients remotely doesn't mean you can't achieve a close working relationship.

Clinching the deal blind

Let’s not skirt around the issue - landing a client remotely is at least twice as hard as doing it face-to-face. Not only do you have to persuade the client that you have the capacity to manage the project, you have to convince them you have the aptitude and finesse to carry it off remotely.

If you can’t be there to dazzle the client with your sparkling repartee, peerless expertise or dashing good looks, make sure your actions speak for you. The old rules of business development apply, but tenfold.

Prompt response to prospect leads is critical. If a prospect has to wait three days for a returned call or email, you have already lost an important opportunity to demonstrate your agility and responsiveness - key skills required to handle clients and projects remotely.

If a fee proposal is requested, drop everything and have it on the client’s desk by the next day, and follow it up by phone.

Ask previous remote clients (satisfied ones) to act as referees and have your prospect contact them to verify your capabilities.

Project methodologies, reports and processes

If your business has difficulty managing clients and projects locally, remote management will be an unmitigated disaster. Ensure your processes and project methodologies are tried, tested and watertight.

Weekly status reports ensure the client is kept abreast of project developments. It is advisable to follow up with a phone call to maintain ‘human’ contact and provide a forum for which the client can raise any concerns. Our experience has shown that regular reporting gains the confidence of the client. We work towards avoiding the situation where the client needs to contact us to flag a problem.

Managing multiple project stakeholders

This is where it gets a bit tricky. Collecting input from multiple project stakeholders is a minefield at the best of times, let alone not being there to gauge visual clues as to which stakeholder holds the most influence.

In these situations, clarifying the project goals and deliverables is crucial to avoid communication breakdowns and costly ‘brief creep’ (when your project starts out being a cottage and ends up being the Taj Mahal). Circulate the document amongst stakeholders and request their agreement prior to the project’s commencement.

Make sure you introduce yourself to each stakeholder directly and ask them if they have any questions or concerns. This may give you a valuable opportunity to win over any sceptical or nervous project stakeholders. Ask them if they wish to be kept up-to-date with status reports, or if they prefer correspondence to be through one point of contact (the latter is of course preferable to the service provider).

Coordinating virtual teams - Controlling the chaos

The principles of managing a geographically dispersed team are the same as managing a team in one location, with the added challenges posed by distance, time zones, and even culture.

A remote project is not the place to test the mettle of new staff members or contractors. Choose team members who are known quantities and who require little hand holding; typically they will posses a level of seniority. Bear in mind that you may pay more for quality, but measure that against the cost of a derailed project and a dissatisfied client. What’s more, an experienced individual may charge a higher hourly fee, but will probably complete the task in less time.

Start with issuing an agreed schedule which assigns a task to each team member prior to project’s commencement, ensuring that roles, responsibilities and project deliverables are clearly articulated. If a budget has been set, ensure that each team member’s task is assigned a quantity of hours in which it is to be completed. It’s also advisable to establish a workable conflict resolution process before the wheels fall off.

If your team members are in different time zones, communication by phone is expensive and inconvenient. Email is the perfect communication tool for virtual teams, however if unforseen issues arise the most effective mode of attack is to set up an online meeting or video or teleconference to get each team member’s undivided attention and input to solve the problem.

As services organisations, technology enables us to work remotely. But it’s up to people to make it work well. Use the right people, set up rigorous processes, and instil strong communication principles - and suddenly your pool of potential clients just got a whole lot bigger.

Ella Tassi and Rebecca Camilleri are directors of LUCID Marketing Communications. Visit www.LUCIDmarketing.com.au, or phone (03) 9428 8858. LUCID Marketing Communications have managed projects as far flung as Japan and the UK, without ever having met the client. They reveal the tools of the trade, the skills and the infrastructure required to manage geographically dispersed teams, keep projects on track and clients smiling.
First published: 8 December 2003.
Last updated: 20 January 2004.