“We had contracted to deliver a piece of work to a client for sixty thousand dollars, in three months. About a month into the effort, I realized that
a) Our assumptions were off the mark! We needed much more work to be done from our end.
b) It would therefore take more effort (that is, more people-hours, hence more money) and a longer time period to deliver on this
So, we had the inevitable call to deliver the bad news. The client is a predictable guy – he did not agree, blamed us for not doing our homework, said that he had a budget constraint and could not increase the project value, insisted that we deliver on time and repeated all of this as if we were imbeciles . The only thing he did not do was warn us that he’d escalate the issue.
Everyone makes mistakes, right?! So, why cannot he be more flexible, particularly when I am willing to accept that we made a couple of assumptions that were incorrect? Grrr!”
The Project Manager sat back with a shrug and a weak smile. I returned the smile – was I supposed to give him a solution to this?
Have you been in a similar situation and maybe, just maybe, it was an important client and therefore that disrupted your sleep as well?
Let’s just look at this from above, shall we?
1) What has happened has happened. One month is gone, a cost overrun is inevitable.
2) The client is probably a nice guy but at this moment entirely focused on
a. The internal issue he would face if he asked for more money or time or both
b. Not setting a precedent, where he is seen as a weak negotiator (lots of folks – men in particular – are conscious of this)
c. Any blame he would receive for not making the specifications or assumptions clear to the Project Manager
So, is there a solution here?
Maybe yes, maybe not.
Yet, what is most important – lemme repeat this, most important – is that, if you find yourself in such a pickle, you try to follow the best negotiation process, with the optimistic hope of the best possible outcome. As a rule (general rule in Life), stay positive.
The Project Manager is likely to be a troubled human being at this point and, most likely, anxious about the outcome. He (or she or you or I) will think of negative, often the worst possible, outcomes (such as, how will this affect me in the organisation? What nasty things will I have to hear from the Finance Controller? You know, stuff like that….)
Well, he must begin by speaking to himself to calm down. Take a chill pill (highly recommended, once a day, after food) and stay positive.
Now, for the next part of the process (part 1 was Chill Pill).
In a Harvard Law School paper titled, ‘Dealing with Difficult People’, here is what they say:
Facing the challenge. It can be extremely challenging to stand up to difficult people who may have an arsenal of weapons, including ridicule, bullying, insults, deception, and exaggeration. In some cases, they might attack you; in others, they might avoid confrontation. Sometimes you are taken by surprise; at other times, there might be a chronic problem you need to address.
Whenever possible, prepare in advance for difficult negotiations. First of all, know yourself. What are your hot-button issues? What is essential to you? What is unacceptable? Next, think about what you are likely to hear from your opponent and plan how you might react.
The most important skill in such situations: engaged listening, a subtle skill that requires constant, thoughtful effort. A good listener will disarm his opponent by stepping to his side, asking open-ended questions, and encouraging him to open up on everything that is bothering him.
Easy in theory, hard to do at that moment.
But it’s the most important skill, remember….
Having said that (or listened to it), let us look at options, the ones in front of the Project Manager.
1. He can either go up to his boss or boss’ boss or HIS boss, take the blame and request for more people and a hit in profitability. He may have thought of this, but baulked at the idea for it shows him up in indifferent light (well, certainly not in good light). And he probably expects a ‘No’. Yet, often this is the smarter option and, at times, the more ethical one.
2. Or he can go back to the client with a Please-Help-Me-Just-Once plea that works occasionally when the client realizes that the Project Manager
a) wasn’t playing games in that first negotiation for delay + rate hike
b) is in genuine trouble and
c) has a family history of hypertension.
It works at times because the client has constraints elsewhere and wants to get on with the project. Plus Client can generally justify these price increases internally saying something or the other. (Another general rule in Life: we can justify Anything)
The client, if s/he is a Smart Person (SP), might also say: because I am doing you a favour, can you increase the free support from your side to one year from six months? This helps Client (who is also SP) to pitch it within his/her company. Note that it can get complicated as well: things get escalated on both sides up the tree and bigger monkeys sometimes descend to solve the problem (which they are perfectly incapable of doing) and, in the end, everyone agrees to meet somewhere in-between.
3. Or the Project Manager can go back to the client with an offer that looks at what the client gets if he pays more and waits longer – a kind of win-win. Not always possible, but worth exploring. The client wanted a butterscotch flavour by March 31st, he’ll get that plus strawberries-and-passion fruit by April end at a slightly higher cost. Again, the good part here is that the client can sell the idea internally (hopefully). Two important points here:
a. The PM must offer to deliver something by the original target date. Of ten project deliverables, for instance, can 4 be done by that date?
b. Always, respect the Client, even if tempers are uneven, with potholes and bumps. Ego is the big let-down in these situations, so the PM must manage his and the Client’s (project + ego, if you get me)
It all starts with listening well to the client, after you have stated your problem. He will rave and rant, complain and coerce, try to make you feel guilty….that sort of thing. Can you listen attentively and paraphrase and say, “Yes, I can see that you find this unfair to you. I would never have raised the issue if it wasn’t real. Let us see what ideas we can come up with?” Or replace the last sentence with, “Can we think of how to make it work for both of us?”
Will all of this work? It does at times and it doesn’t at times. In other words, like every good economist, I will say, It Depends.
The outcome is not in our hands. The process is.
