Business Word

First Impressions
Creating the Right Image Doesn't End with the Signing of a Contract

by Anton Holland

At last, I find myself face-to-face with a client with whom I have until now only exchanged a series of faxes. At this moment, the client is sizing me up. Beneath the firm handshakes and polite smiles, I detect an air of apprehension that is confirmed when the client nervously says to me "I thought you'd have white hair and be fifty years old! Are you sure you know enough about this stuff?"

This was not the most comfortable way to start work on a project for a client that I was meeting for the first time. The contract had been won through a request for proposal (RFP) that had been mailed to our firm. The content of the RFP had been quite clear and concise, requiring only a quick exchange of faxes to clarify a few fine points. By the time the proposal was submitted, and the contract subsequently awarded to our firm, no face-to-face meeting with the client had ever taken place. We won the contract based on the content of our proposal and the reputation of our firm.

The problem on that day of our first meeting was one of perception. The client had a significant documentation problem and no in-house means of solving it. The concept surrounding their problem was quite foreign to them, but they understood the logic of our intended approach and were quite comfortable with trusting us to get the job done.

On paper that is.

Because they had no experience with situations such as the one with which they were faced, and their own attempts had not met with much success, the client thought that it was going to take a real wizard to get the job done. The problem was, all the wizards that they had dealt with in the past had white hair and were at least fifty years old. So I guess they couldn't be blamed for panicking once they saw that they had entrusted their survival to a twenty-nine year old documentation manager who only had a couple of grey hairs (if you looked really close).

They were nervous because they thought they were doomed. Casting aside my own insecurities, I methodically explained to the client what my view of the problem was, how I would approach the challenges, and why they didn't need a guru to do the job. I explained that all they needed was a person with knowledge, insight, and access to experts from my firm and their organization who could help me develop the critical information they so desperately needed. If you like happy endings, you'll be pleased to know that I eventually convinced them and we've had a long and mutually rewarding business relationship (and I even have a lot more of that white hair that they're so fond of).

The moral of this little fable is that even though my clients were not impressed with the image they saw when they first met me (I was dressed in appropriate corporate attire, but there was nothing I could do about my age), I was able to impress them with the tools I had at my disposal, namely my expertise and the ability to conduct myself with confidence.

Of course, delivering the right impression is not always as easy as it sounds. Here are a few pointers that might help:

• Don't give your client an excuse to be dissatisfied with the impression you give. For example, if you're doing work for a large company with a conservative culture, do your best to fit in. Regardless of whether the way people dress is a superficial trait to you, many people regard it as significant. Police officers wear uniforms and scientists wear lab coats; likewise, writers in the corporate world wear appropriate business attire.
• Be organized. Unless you are a mad scientist, being disorganized and absent-minded is not an endearing quality, especially in a world where your clients are forced to do more with less and are working harder than ever. Your job is to make them feel at ease by letting them know that they can trust you to get the job done right.
• Take control of meetings. Nothing says "dud" better than business meetings that are boring or that spin out of control because the person chairing them can't drive them properly. People hate to have their time wasted. If you are leading a meeting, set an agenda and make sure the participants stick to it. Move the meeting along if it enters a dead zone. And make sure that you ask meaningful questions that couldn't be answered solely from reference material.
• Communicate with authority. Presumably, you have been hired by your client (or are trying to get yourself hired) because you have the knowledge and expertise to get the job done better than anyone else. Use tact, when necessary, to ensure that people with belligerent tendencies do not eclipse the messages you are trying to communicate. The client has come to you for help—prove that the decision was a good one.

It takes a little practice, but eventually, giving that right impression that smoothes the way for you to get more significant tasks accomplished will become second nature.

By the way, do you like my new tie?