Meeting the Client
Having got this far, an executive interim manager needs to ensure that their selling process is finely honed. Remember, assignments aren't always awarded to the best candidate, they're sometimes to the candidate who engages best with the client. It's worth investing significant time to get this right.
Do Your Homework Beforehand
Talk to the interim management service provider and get as much informal background as they can provide.
Search the internet for background on the client's business. It's often helpful to drop into conversation things that you've researched about the business.
Find out who the interviewer is, and if possible a little about their background. Are they likely to respond to left-brained/analytic or right-brained creative approaches?
Prepare a few incisive questions, perhaps based upon the research you've done on the company, or if the client hasn't yet developed a formal set of terms of reference exploring key elements of this can make for an informative discussion and demonstrate that the executive interim manager takes a structured approach.
- Stakeholders
- Objectives
- Deliverables
- Resources
- Team Members
- Project Timescale
- Key Dependencies
- Communication Mechanisms / Reporting
Dress
Suit and tie for men; unless explicitly told otherwise. Even if you're told that the dress code is "informal" it's often still a positive differentiator for example for men to wear a "sports jacket" and tie. Ask yourself: "How would someone from a "Big Four" consultancy be dressed to make this pitch for the client ?"
Take with You
Your "Show and Tell"
When consultancies "pitch" for new business, they typically use elaborately animated PowerPoint presentations projected onto a large wall and peppered with numerous case studies to demonstrate their track record and reinforce their credibility. More and more executive interim managers are using similar approaches.
Although an elaborate PowerPoint presentation can emphasise an executive interim manager's credibility it can also become a monologue that excludes the client, rather than engaging with them. As such, it can actually be more effective to use printed hard copies of slides, (presented in individual acetate sleeves) rather than the "all singing all dancing" laptop approach. These together with sample documents e.g. proforma spreadsheets, material samples etc. can enable the client to physically interact with your presentation, and in doing so engage in dialogue with you.
Maintaining the Confidentiality of Previous Interim Management Jobs.
The ethics and professional integrity of executive interim managers is vitally important and some would say increasingly becoming a differentiator.
The confidentiality of data and information, which relates to assignments with previous clients shouldn't be compromised irrespective of whether confidentiality agreements have been signed or not. This can potentially present a thorny issue for an executive interim manager, whose livelihood depends upon their ability to convince potential clients about their ability to deliver value.
However, its worth remembering that often the intellectual property rights to the process used during an interim management job will rest with the executive interim manager who delivered it, (subject always of course to the specific terms and conditions of contract for the engagement). This means that it is often acceptable to discuss the approach which was used in some detail; the important parts of the methodology; the range of particular benefits that it delivers; any risks and ways in which they can be mitigated etc..
It's possible to show not actual samples of previous client's data, but realistic examples of data, which have been constructed solely for the purpose of explaining the principles to new clients. When you do this its worth drawing attention to the fact that the information is: "Example Data Only".
Previous clients' identities can be disguised using nomenclature such as; "FTSE250 Automotive Industry Client"
Benefits can be described in qualitative terms; and quantitative benefits can be described in ranges such as: "double digit percentage improvements"
Continuous Professional Development for Interim Managers
You may be aware of the Institute of Interim Management but did you know that in Europe, specialist education and training courses for interim managers' professional development have been established and a number of books for interim managers have been published.
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