{"id":521,"date":"2020-02-28T16:29:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/?p=521"},"modified":"2020-02-28T16:29:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:29:20","slug":"consulting-101-quick-wins-and-how-to-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/28\/consulting-101-quick-wins-and-how-to-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Consulting 101 – Quick Wins and How to Say No"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quick Wins and How to Say No<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In client services, the ability to go above and beyond is\nnot just necessary, it is a must. Just floating by and doing the bare minimum\nmay be enough to successfully complete the items listed in the statement of\nwork, but your ultimate goal should always be on winning the next set of follow-up\nwork. One of the best ways to do this is by delivering slightly more than what\nyour client originally signed up for. Growing existing clients rather than\nfinding new ones is the easiest way to win work for your firm and it is the job\nof the team on the ground to ensure that happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As requirements evolve and the project ebbs and flows, you\nwill have the opportunity to take on new additional items that may either be an\nextension of the existing scope or tangential. Tasks that can be done in a relatively\nshort period of time and not impact or impede the overall project plan are\ncalled quick wins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability to spot a good quick win vs. what would not be\nworth the effort is where the ability to say no to a client intersects. Clients\ncan and will ask you to take on additional work all the time and it will be up\nto you and your project manager to decide whether the extra effort will be\nworth it in the long run. Usually, if the item is low effort and high reward,\nit is a safe bet to take on the extra item. It will be perceived well by the\nclient and not add too much risk to your existing project. As the work\nincreases in complexity and lowers in terms of the reward it carries for the\nclient, this is where it is wise to begin pushing back on the client. Maybe you\ncould push the work to another future phase, or carefully explain the work vs.\nthe impact. You will need to learn to say no to a client from time to time. Whether\nthe client is innocent in asking for additional items or they are purposely\npushing the team to get more bang for their buck, this is where scope creep can\nbegin to put your project at risk. It will be down to you and your project\nmanager to manage expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saying No and Finding a Compromise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A client once\napproached my desk, rolled up a chair and sat down next to me. As I removed my\nheadphones and turned from the task I was currently working on, he started to\nengage in some quick small talk. As I listened to a story about his dog, I knew\nhe was on track to pivot to a requirement change. Clients that need a quick\nchange usually avoid project management and go directly to the developer in\nhopes of getting what they want. \u201cOh, I believe it\u2019s simple, but I would be grateful\nif we could also have the tool to do so and so\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I let him know his\nrequest was fair and I would look into feasibility while knowing that the\nchange being requested would add a lot of work to my plate as well as derail\nthe task I was currently working on. Once he left, I reported the task back to\nmy project manager who recorded the item to the backlog. At the next status\nmeeting, we brought up the new item with all parties being present and quickly\ndecided that the new item was worth the effort and the current task I was\nworking on could be bumped to a later phase. In this scenario, the client gave\nup a bit but also got something he wanted, and I did not have to double time it\nto produce more work. Win-Win. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure do read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting<\/a> available on Amazon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick Wins and How to Say No In client services, the ability to go above and beyond is not just necessary, it is a must. Just floating by and doing the bare minimum may be enough to successfully complete the items listed in the statement of work, but your ultimate goal should always be on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-consulting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}