Wednesday 9 February 2011

How do you deal with incoming enquiries?

I receive emails from numerous discussion forums and was intrigued this week to see a someone regaling the list with a tale of woe after trying to place some work with suppliers. The client had asked the list for recommendations for suppliers to build some specialist software, and had duly gone off and called the recommended companies, about 10 in all. 3 had failed to answer the phone at all, 5 answered the phone but couldn't pass him onto someone to deal with his enquiry and the final 2 were the right people but wouldn't discuss budgets in even the vaguest terms. So despite no doubt spending considerable time and effort soliciting enquiries from potential clients none of the companies came close to actually getting the business.

In theory small companies and one man bands have an advantage in this scenario - if you work for yourself there's no question of delegating dealing with enquiries to someone else. But the story does highlight how important it is to be clear about the questions you need to ask a client to understand exactly what they need, how big a job it's likely to be and whether you are a good fit to their requirements. We know from experience that extracting the right information from clients can be remarkably difficult, which is why we have a standard form we use to collect background information about the projects that come in to Skillfair. Given that a client calling you to ask for help is what most of us are working hard to achieve I think it's well worth taking some time out to make your own checklist or questionnaire so you make sure that you're the one company that does respond well to the next enquiry!



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