Know When to Say No

By Patrick Collins

 

If you’re reading this article, my guess is that you’re in some way responsible for generating business. Maybe you’re the CEO, or maybe you’re leading or are part of a sales team. But sooner or later, it all comes back to one core question: do you have what it takes to shepherd your company from where it is now to where it wants to be in the future? Do you have that magic touch that can transform aspirations into reality?

 

While public relations and marketing obviously play a huge role in building a business, the ability to secure new clients and deliver stellar service to existing ones is of equal importance.

 

I learned that lesson the hard way. A year and a half ago I bid a fond farewell to office parks, cubicles, conference rooms and mandatory personality tests and started my own business. Then gas prices soared. Then the bill at the grocery store practically doubled. Then hundreds of thousands of home owners went into foreclosure. Then the housing market crashed. Then the value of the U.S. dollar fell around the world.

 

And then I panicked.

 

While I’ve never been very good at saying no, I became even worse. I gladly, gratefully accepted every client who came along, even those who I knew were not a good fit. That’s where I learned the most basic business lesson to date. If you’re taking on clients who are, for example, disorganized, unclear on what they want to say and accomplish, whose financial stability is questionable, and who are, on top of it all, incredibly demanding, you will lose in the long run. That’s because they will drain you of resources normally allocated for more suitable clients. I believe this phenomenon is known as the squeaky wheel getting the grease.

 

To learn more about how to tactfully say no to potential clients, I talked to Sean Guerrero, co-founder of Creative Computer Solutions, Inc. (CCSI), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Vancouver, Washington. Guerrero is a service provider extraordinaire. Whenever postage rates go up, for example, he sends stamps that make up the difference to all of his clients so they don’t have to stand in line at the post office. Like all business people, he has seen some good times and some bad. CCSI celebrated its 10^th anniversary this summer. The company endured the high tech crash of 2001 and now, this. In fact, CCSI hasn’t merely endured – it’s thriving.  Through economic times thick and thin, the company has grown from a two-man shop to one with 10 employees, more than 300 clients, and plans for expansion.

 

What’s the secret? “We don’t just work with clients,” says Guerrero. “We work with the right clients. If we can’t do it 100 percent, we’d rather not do it at all.”

 

How, I wondered, does one determine who is a right client and who is not? Guerrero, of course, had several tips and tricks to share.

 

·It’s important to select clients who share your vision of how to do business. “When we have taken on clients who are not committed to technology and achieving the best outcome possible, they are generally a drain on our resources,” he says. “And as a small business, resources are important.”

·As a Microsoft Partner, follow Microsoft’s guidelines. Take advantage of the resources Microsoft offers to ensure you’re adhering to those guidelines. These guidelines encompass issues such as best practices that include security and licensing. They’re important. Pay attention. Clients who are not adhering to those guidelines are probably not clients you want.

·As is the case in a job interview, during your initial meeting with a potential client, interview them as much as they’re interviewing you. “Over the years we came up with an interview process,” Guerrero says. “The first thing we do is sit down with the potential client and ask them, if they had the opportunity to start all over, knowing what they know now, what they would do differently. If people are irritated by that question, they’ll probably be that way throughout the relationship.”

·Other questions Guerrero recommends: What brought you to us? What are your technology pains? What are your overall goals and growth plans? What is the budget? “We also ask potential clients how important technology is to them,” he says. “When they say ‘we just have to have it,’ that’s a sign that they’re not that interested. We also think it’s important to know if they have a training program for their users. If they don’t, they’ll probably blame any problems users have on the IT provider.”

·If you turn a potential client down or need to terminate a relationship with an existing one, always recommend an alternate resource that’s more suitable to what the client needs.

·Remember to go easy on yourself. Learning to evaluate potential clients, like any other skill, takes time. “When you’re starting out, it’s hard because you think you’re obligated to take on every client,” says Guerrero. “But positive attracts positive. If you go after good things, good things come your way.”

 

Finally, when worrying about declining business during a rough economic period, keep this in mind: no matter how bad – or good – the economy is, the one entity that is going to incur the most damage from a bumpy client relationship is your reputation.

 

 

 

For nearly 20 years, Patrick Collins has been listening carefully to subject matter experts in order to transform complex material into concise and understandable copy. Before starting his own communications consultancy, Patrick was a senior writer for a global public relations agency and worked for Washington University  in Saint Louis, the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) in Portland, Oregon.

 

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The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Microsoft.