by This question came up in a recent discussion with a professional colleague. Despite my hesitation to engage in a “best” discussion, let’s see, and take into account the appropriate cautions that “best” is in the eye of the beholder. Some thoughts on what I look for.
They respect what you offer. They offer fair value for your services and you can tell they are genuinely trying to seek a mutually beneficial contract. They are not seeking to beat you down on price – always a bad sign! And beware the “we’ll do this first one at a loss, but after that…..” Rarely, in my experience has that every panned out in a good way. They respect your time as well and show up on time for calls, for instance, and don’t keep you waiting every time because they are “busy.”
They know what they want. It’s relatively clear what success looks like. It’s very difficult to produce “good” results when it’s not clear what a good result is. I like exploratory projects, and from the consulting side, these are often fun and great learning experiences, but when there is no clear application for the work, it’s inevitably going to lead to questions about the usefulness of the work.
They challenge you. They recognize that an interesting project engages the consultant to do their best. They see that as a way to get better work for themselves – they look for win-win’s. Sometimes we simply need to take work to pay the bills. If we have a choice, however, a key criteria for us is how interesting or challenging the work is. It may be worth taking a smaller paying project with a topic that you’re trying to build or extend your expertise in, over a larger one that is “same-old, same-old.”
They are interested in a relationship. Rather than one-off’s. Of course, we need to prove our worth. But some clients simply want to keep using new people and see no value in a long-term relationship. I totally agree with the idea of working with new people, and in good client relationships have recommended “competitors” to help my client get some new and diverse perspectives. Andy Hines
Andy, nicely summarized. I wholly agree. I like to think about my all-time best client, and she met each of these. She also got the best out of messy team of different specialists, including me.
On the relationship, I of course love it when they move on, then reach out again from a new organization.
There’s plenty to say on “worst clients” but I am glad you did the positive