Management Questions

Defining / Establishing a Relationship

• What is the collaborative purpose of our relationship? In the end, what should our efforts together yield?
• What does the client value in the relationship? What’s most important to them? Why is it important?
• How exactly will we work together? What’s the relationship look like when it’s functioning optimally?
• What are our respective roles? What are the reasons for these roles? Define them clearly!
• How, specifically, will we know if the relationship is working – how will we measure our success?
• What will we do together to ensure that the relationship is continually improving?
• What will we do if it starts to falter? What are the “deal-breakers”?
• How often will we review our relationship and how?

Reviewing a Relationship

• Do you trust us to get the work done to your expectations and standards? To make sound judgments about spending your money? To do what we say we will do? To live up to our Relationship Mission? And if we’ve faltered in any way, how can we rebuild the trust between us?
• Are we communicating effectively? Do we keep you well enough informed or do you sometimes wonder where things stand? Are we forthright and square with you when it comes to the tough issues? Are we proactive enough?
• Is the level of commitment what you expect it should be? Do you feel you’re getting our best all the time? Are we keeping all those promises we made when we were soliciting your business? Is there tangible dedication to ongoing improvement, even when there are no apparent problems?
• How well do you think we respond to opportunities?
• When we begin a project, do you feel we both have a clear understanding of who will do what, what’s expected, and what the terms and conditions are?
• What’s your sense of our collaborative business judgment when we’re working together?
• How good a job do we do together identifying critical issues?
• What can each of us do better to make sure we always achieve the best possible results?
• Is the relationship improving, deteriorating, or staying about the same?
• As candidly as we can, let’s discuss how comfortable or uncomfortable we are with things at this point.
• What are the biggest obstacles you feel we must overcome together?
• If you could immediately change one thing about our relationship, what would it be?
• When our conversations reveal that there are ways to get better, do we improve when we say we will?

Source:
The Five Cardinal Sins of Client Relationships
by Joe Grant
The CEO Refresher

Posted by Administrator / Customer Questions