Comments on: Losing Gracefully: What to Do When You Can't Deliver

By: Kenny Barrow

Kenny Barrow — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:57:53 +0000

While managing a major telephone company’s business services, one of the things I put in place were several meetings to communicate and educate the customer during the whole sales and installation process.

Installation meeting
Progress meeting
Final review meeting
Emergency meetings if needed.

This allows both parties to discuss questions & concerns, if both parties are aware that there are always unforeseen obstacles that may occur. A revised contract can be written to deal with these obstacles.

This is called a change order and states further charges may occur. If everyone is in agreement the job continues. If not the original contract explains the division of cost & responsibilities of work completed so far.

What this does is puts the fault on the situation and not on either party of the business transaction.

You are going into the deal with the expectation that there may be changes and there may be further actions or companies involved to resolve these issues.

The best solution is to have a good corporate lawyer build a standard contract for YOUR business niche with these features in the contract.

This makes bailing out just a part of the process. Plan for change and it is much easier to regroup and move on.

By: pam

pam — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:04:12 +0000

I’ve been through this twice in recent history — once, like the previous commenter, I was freelancer #4. I was sort of relieved to learn that it wasn’t me. The other time, it turned out the client was totally satisfied with my work, but I wasn’t satisfied with the way the relationship was managed.

I want to be successful every time, but it’s good to remember that the reason a project is or isn’t successful has two sides.

By: Meryl Evans

Meryl Evans — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:14:05 +0000

I had the case of the latter — I was the third or fourth writer and I quickly learned why. The client wanted content that no good web writer would produce. It was the kind of content not meant for a corporate web site. I hated admitting defeat, but I had to tell myself I was better off.

Sometimes dropping a client is the best thing we can do for ourselves. Of course, try to do what you can to make it easier for the client in getting a replacement.

The energy you drain in working on an assignment that gives you no joy — can easily be replaced with TWO clients because you enjoy the work and have more energy. It’s less tempting to put off work when it’s a good experience.