Seven Tips for Sellers

The following tips and techniques have been picked up from the front lines of project management and might be helpful to both seller organizations and project managers in their efforts to get the most from their contracted project work and business relationships:

1. Get formal acceptance—Make sure to get some form of formal verification or sign-off from the client to document acceptance of the targeted deliverable(s).
2. Clarify standards and acceptance criteria—Make sure to understand what standards you are expected to adhere to before you begin your work (put in the contract) and document what criteria will be used by the client to officially accept each deliverable.
3. Define review process—Make sure to clarify with the client what process will be used to review and accept each deliverable. In particular, specify who will be involved in the review process, how much time will be allowed for the review, and how many iterations (for refinements) should be expected and included as part of the scope.
4. Control invoicing process—There is nothing worse than visiting with the client project manager or project sponsor after they have received an inaccurate project invoice that you did not know had been sent or had never seen. To prevent these situations and manage the credibility of your organization, ask to have review-and-approve powers on any project invoices before they are issued.
5. Keep a close eye on resource dependencies—From the start, understand what elements of the WBS need collaboration with resources from the client (or other) organization and make sure the client clearly understands these dependencies and realizes the impact (time, cost, quality) of not having the resources when needed.
6. Manage communications—Take control and ownership of all communications between your team and the client organization and communications with your senior management.
7. Be transparent—The more open, transparent, and visible you are regarding your team’s activities and progress, the more trust and confidence you build with your client. If you happen to find yourself in a crisis, your “truth and nothing but the truth” approach and the relationship you have established might be the only things that get you through these times.