Seeing Through the Client’s Eyes

“Account teams often focus on the day-to-day tactical progress of a project,” observes Gary Fink, a veteran consulting executive in Accenture’s Financial Services operating group. “But you need to stay focused on the client’s business issue—that’s the reason you were hired in the first place.”

That means seeing the project through the client’s eyes, understanding their vision and knowing how they define success. “The bells and whistles you deliver along the way will be seen as insignificant unless the client sees that you have helped solve the problem or leveraged an opportunity,” says Fink.

He acknowledges that employee turnover—both on the sales side and on the client side—can make it easy to lose sight of the big picture. You can avoid this by helping the client define and document their vision at the outset of the project, and then by carefully measuring progress as the project proceeds.

“Make sure that you understand the complexities before the project is initiated,” he recommends. “Do your homework and don’t rush a deal through the process. Rushing can cause problems down the road—and clients hate surprises. If you come back to the table again and again with new information and explanations, trust will be lost, and clients may think that you’re more focused on selling than helping them.”

Avoid blaming problems on existing processes or technologies that your solution or service was supposed to work with. Continual alignment of expectations ...

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