Introduction
You need to remember a set of phrases that you may say during your first contact with a client. You should put away the thought that you really need to get this client. At this stage, you should not forget that the main aim o your business is to gain money and profit.
Another thing that you should not forget about is that you should not be too personal with the client. But you may be friendly. It would be a sort of a mistake to tell client yours life’s story. While holding conversations, you should be concentrated on business and stick to it. The person should speak confidently, and assert his viewpoints.
It is a big mistake not to answer asked questions truthfully. If yours prospective client makes a question, which are not able to answer immediately, just be honest. Give an explanation that in order to give the reliable and appropriate answer for the question; you will need some time to think over it. Do not promise to do those things that it is difficult for you to do at the moment, because afterwards you will be obliged to do them all the time.
If the communication with the future client is going well, you need to show him or her confidence about this. You should understand the particulars of the work; you should get enough basic information to be able to understand the requirements provided for work to be successfully done. If you got the clue about these issues then you need to start the conversation with your client about that how you are going to be paid.
Do not plan to work with a client who is does not want to talk about payment to you. There are big chances are that client has no intention at all to pay you, if he or she does not want to set out a time for paying you.
Setting up a project
First of all, you and the client (project sponsor) should make a business case that you both believe in. You should ensure him that you are confident in the process of achieving the production of the certain business case in the given time. It is likely that you will be not in need of major support from others in producing the business case. This may be achieved by collaborating with the help of a special project cursor steering group.
If do not have such group, then should form it. It would be helpful if to start the selection of the group members parallel with the developing of the business case. In order to form the required group you need to gather together a number of senior managers within any sphere or organization. These people should have the significant authority and must be able to authorize and sign the release of funds or certain resources with the aim to support appeared project. Basically these senior managers are self-selecting and it is easy to coerce them into joining already mentioned steering group of the project.
You should make the presentation of the developed business case for the rejection or the approval. You should spend your time with the different members of your group explaining them in detail the given business case. You should seek their views during this process in order to use it in the content of your business case and its production itself.
Before the first meeting of the steering group, you should agree on the “chair” issue with the project sponsor. At this meeting the project sponsor should present the schedule of the production. Then you will need to set out the main resources required to progress to the associated project plan and also a full business case. When you get the approval, you may introduce it as an indication gaining the senior management support for your project.
The usage of the various problem solving methodologies and generation of the effective solutions:
Most of the business problems are usually solved by responsible management or by the members of the organizational directly affected by the given problem. There some techniques that may help person to make the analysis facing the problematic situation. Here some basic tools for this listed by Wickham in his “Management Consulting”:
- “Extracting maximum information from facts – Appreciation
- Understanding problems in detail – Drill – Down
- Identifying possible causes of problems – Cause and Effect Diagrams
- Understanding how a process works – Flow Charts
- Understanding the way factors affect one-another – Systems Diagrams
- Analyzing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – SWOT Analysis
- Making Cash Flow Forecasts with Spreadsheets
- Methods of Risk Analysis
- Understanding where the power lies – Porter’s Five Forces
- Understanding the big picture – PEST Analysis
- Identifying what really matters to customers – Value Chains
- Find your competitive edge with USP Analysis” (Wickham, 2007).
“Appreciation” is a really useful technique for getting helpful information from the dry facts. If we are talking about “Drill Down”, then we need o say that it helps to split problems into achievable and reasonable parts. Besides, it helps to understand where you should introduce more facts and information. “Cause and Effect Diagrams” are useful in the reconsidered of all facts related to a problem, and understanding how some issues interact in complex and difficult situations. “SWOT Analysis” enables you to make a success strategy in a hard and competitive environment. You can use it to forecast the results of changes in out pointing factors. “Risk Analysis” is helpful in working out of a strategy for controlling certain risks.
Writing a report and giving an effective presentation:
It is important to remember that the central aim of any presentation is communication. I order to communicate effectively, person should state his or her information in a simple, but at he same time, laconic and interesting manner.
Here some key points that one should follow in order to make an effective business presentation:
- you need to be able to define your issue matter
- you need to know your audience
- you must be able to valuate frankly yourself and your limits
- you need to be able to develop a theme
Your presentation need be entertaining. Such way you will make the audience feeling much better and a lot more relaxed when they leave and such an impression from your presentation will carry over to your issue matter and your personal image. That is how you will be able to achieve your business aim.
References
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Wickham, P.A. (2007). Management Consulting. FT Prentice Hall, New York.