From CIO to consultant: Knowing when to say no

Not all projects are created equal. It didn't take ex-CIO Mike Barrett long to learn it really pays to be discriminating when it comes to taking the first steps in consultancy.

In March, Tom Hardie posted a comment against my second article with some great advice. Tom said the most important thing in consultancy is making sure you know when to say no.

Intellectually, that made perfect sense. But at the time I was just starting out, trying to get my first clients and probably would have agreed to do pretty much any job to get a foot in the door.

I guess the thing about great advice is even though it's obvious, no one really accepts it fully until they make a mistake that proves it true - or is that just me?

I thought back to Tom's advice recently. In fact, I've had plenty of time to reflect on it over the past two weeks while carrying out the least interesting assignment of my short consulting career.

Don't get me wrong, it was for a very clued-up company - a simple job that I'm completely over-qualified to do and was extremely tedious, and at half my normal rate.

So how did I come to find myself in this situation? By not saying no. Even though it was an existing client and even though it was completed successfully, it made me question whether or not I should have taken the assignment in the first place.

I'm putting this project down as a valuable learning experience but it set me thinking about what makes a good project and more importantly, what makes a good client?

Good projects

One of the things you learn early on about consultancy projects is that, in general, you are employed to do work that you've done before. Clients buy your experience as insurance against project failure. That's why you need to focus on a niche, however narrow.

In some cases you might be engaged to carry out some research in an area you haven't worked in before. But on the whole you're going to be doing what you've done before. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. If you do a good job then the client may employ you again and recommend you to other people.

So my personal definition of a good project is one that will be successful and where you get to educate people along the way. The objective is to leave the business in better shape than when you arrived and it's my philosophy that it's better to teach a man to fish than fish for him.

Given you are likely to be employed to do something you've done before, if you have the option of doing an interesting project, then that project should be given priority.

Good clients

Good clients are hard to identify before you work with them. I've been looking back over the past few months to try to understand what makes a good client and I've decided that they broadly fall into three camps.

I don't think these are peculiar to my specific market - they would appear in any consultant's business. Let me know if you recognise any of these:

Those who get it

Clients who get it are great. They know what they want and probably know how to get it too. Sales cycles are shorter because they speak your language, know all the angles and generally make it easy for you to fit into the team.

Usually you are hired into this type of company because they are busy being successful and need more short-term resources to deliver projects.

The main downside to this type of client is there are limited opportunities. They only hire when there is too much work and as soon as the workload levels out, the expensive consultant is first to be cut from the budget.

The other potential problem is the possibility you become a threat to the permanent team should there be too much of an overlap between your expertise and theirs.

Always take the opportunity to work with other people that get it. There is so much to learn from observing successful companies. One of the great things about consultancy is you can then take the best ideas from each of your clients to apply to your own business.

Those who don't get it - but think they do

Probably the most frustrating thing in the world is to try to sell an idea or solution to somebody who thinks they know it all. You can see it's going to end in a disaster - and possibly even mean more work for you in the long term. But no matter how hard you try, you can't save them from themselves.

People in this category will argue with you until they are blue in the face to convince you they know the solution to the problem they face "in their world". Usually they are entering a field where you have experience and you find yourself watching the client make the same mistakes the rest of the industry made as long as five years ago.

Suffice to say that as soon as you identify a client in this category you need to make a sharp exit from the project. If you don't, you'll be dragged into a situation where you don't have any influence and will become a convenient scapegoat if the whole thing goes pear-shaped.

Those who don't get it - and know they don't

Without doubt the best type of client to consult for. Clients who realise they don't know about a subject are happy to take advice, keen to learn from you and, importantly, happy to pay the going rate for that knowledge.

They are probably behind the curve in the area you operate in, which is why they are employing you. That means you may have to spend more time convincing them you are the right person to help. They won't necessarily speak the same language as you, which can make this feel like a frustrating process, but if you persist and can learn to speak their language, the benefits are well worth the effort.

Their lack of cutting edge in your area can be a blessing in disguise. We have all struggled in our businesses with systems and processes that have evolved over time to be sub-optimal but impossible to fix.

Very often, this type of client has no legacy systems or knowledge. They offer you the opportunity to start with a completely clean sheet of paper.

So although you may be doing something you've done before, the real interest is in being able to do it from scratch, your way.

Undoubtedly this is the most satisfying type of project of all and definitely worth saying no to all those uninteresting projects and to all the people who think they get it.