Camping out with clients

By Linda Julian

Wherever possible and feasible, spend time "camping out" in the offices and facilities of your business clients.

Any natural scientist will tell you that to really understand an organism you need to observe it in its habitat.

One great example:  a giraffe, seen in the zoo, is an amazing creature  -  tall, magnificent, exotic, even weird.  Watching a giraffe out on the African savannah, you see an animal that is no longer weird  -  it reaches food sources way out of range of competitors and is, quite obviously, perfectly adapted for its habitat.

Natural science offers us valuable lessons.  There are strong parallels between the giraffe anecdote and our experience of clients.

In the rarefied atmosphere of your office, various attributes or actions of a client will seem unbelievable or inexplicable.  Observing that same client on their own territory may put things into context.

Better, you'll learn lots to help you tailor your advice to the business circumstances of your client.  Still better, you'll show you care.  You'll demolish barriers.  Best of all, you'll improve your prospects of coming away with another matter.

"Camping out" with clients extends to working side-by-side with clients as they deal with their customers, suppliers, and business challenges.

Seeing clients in operation in their environment isn't a magical panacea:  it doesn't replace calm, cool-headed, objective analysis and expert counsel.

Just because you develop insight into the forces at play in your client's world doesn't mean you can instantly solve their every problem, let alone save them from themselves. 

But the camping out experience should ratchet up by quite a few notches  -  your influence, persuasion, and value.