I always wondered if I would be in a position to tell a potential client that I’m not interested. It happened last week.
Originally, the client asked me to propose assessing their quality system. Nearly two months after sending the proposal, the client finally agreed to proceed.
I had a team of three conduct the assessment. To our surprise, the company had no quality system in place–nothing. They also had virtually zero processes formally defined and documented. It was kind of surprising to me. While I don’t know the exact company revenues, I suspect they exceeded $200 million annually.
So the team conducted the assessment, pointed out the issues, and generated a report. But the whole time, the company’s management really seemed to be missing the point. They were so focused on a particular goal, that they were missing the big picture. I tried, unsuccessfully, to enlighten them and put together another proposal for additional work efforts–all intended to achieve the goal management wanted.
After submitting the report, the management called several times over the next few weeks.
“Hey Jon, the report looks pretty good. Can you change this to say . . . “
“Why did you state this was an issue in your report? Was this something you actually observed?”
The proposal was scrutinized and nit-picked just as much. And then, the company contact indicated he (and I assumed the company) was happy with the proposal but that he needed to have legal review it. Legal did and had more comments. Reviewing the proposal took nearly a month and the company couldn’t understand why their goal “deadline” was being compromised.
I started to realize one thing about this client: their current behaviour was the best that it was ever going to be. The management failed to understand our approach and never saw the big picture. If I continued to work with this client, I would always struggle and fail to convince them. So I told them “no thank you”, that I wasn’t interested in working with them, could not provide resources, and rescinded my proposal.
I wish it didn’t come to this. But sometimes it just will. I enjoy what I do. I take pride in what I do. I enjoy working with clients who appreciate my experience and abilities to help them be successful. If the client doesn’t get it, it’s just not worth it. I will not be happy and the client will always second guess my results.
