Posted: May 15th, 2015
Week 1.2 Identifying a Client
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Project Assignment – Identifying a client:
You must begin at once to identify a good client to work with for the semester. It may take several tries, so do this right away. You will do this by contacting business owners in your area.
We have found over the past ten years that most business owners are pleased to participate in this type of project if they understand clearly what is expected of them and what they will get in return. It is your first job to find likely participants and to contact the business owner to request their participation.
Criteria For Choosing Participating Companies
What the small business owner must agree to be considered a good client.
How does the small business owner benefit from your project?
Initial Contact:
In the process of determining your preferences for industry you have considered the availability of firms in your local area. Now that the industry is chosen, you should make a list of several likely firms. This list may come from your own trade experience, personal relationships, or recommendations from others. Or you may simply go to the yellow pages of your phone book.
We recommend that you make your first contact by telephone. Call the business and ask to speak to the owner. It is important that the owner or CEO of the firm agree to participate in your project. If you have only a manager, or other employee, that is interested, it is highly unlikely that you will have access to complete information on the firm. We have had experiences where a faction in a firm has engaged our student team hoping to get results to use against another faction in the business. Avoid this by talking to the top person in the firm.
In the phone call, introduce yourself by name as a Washington State University student conducting a class project as part of a required class for your bachelor’s degree, and describe the project.
Key points to make are these:
You are looking for a firm to participate in a consulting project. You are not looking for a job or an internship.
You will be conducting a strategic analysis of the business and making recommendations in consultation with the client. A strategic analysis involves identifying external opportunities and threats to the firm and internal strengths and weaknesses. The result of the analysis and recommendations will take the form of a written strategic plan presented at the end of the semester, in about 15 weeks.
All information about the project will be treated with complete confidentiality and the plan will be developed at no cost to the client.
We ask only that the client agree to meet with you three or four times over the course of the semester and provide you with the information you need to complete your analysis. This includes financial information.
If the owner says this sounds like something they might benefit from, thank the owner with some words of encouragement and ask the owner to tell you a little bit about the business and its challenges and successes. This is only for purpose of letting the owner know you are interested and to see if the owner qualifies by having been in business for two or more years and by having an employee or two.
If you are not sure if this is the firm you want to work with, tell the owner that you would like to place them on the list of firms under consideration for the project, and give a date when you will get back to them with a final determination. Be sure to thank the owner for his or her time.
If the owner does not qualify, let the owner know that you appreciate their time and interest, but that we are looking for firms with a different profile. Be sure to thank the owner for his or her time.
In searching for a client, you should remain flexible. Do not set in your mind what business you want to work with, because you may lose time waiting for a specific business owner, or trying to find the same type of businesses before you find one that will agree to work with you.
Because this process may take time, you must begin immediately. Do not under any circumstances postpone identifying a client.
Confidentiality Agreement:
A requirement of the course is that you read, agree to and sign a confidentiality statement. By signing this form you acknowledge that you will receive no financial benefit from participating in this project. This is good business practice and also a requirement of state law since you are a representative of Washington State University in this project. When you meet with your client you should leave a copy of the signed confidentiality agreement for their records.
You will find the Confidentiality Agreement form on the next page.
Detailed suggestions for the first meeting are covered in Week 2.Bottom of Form
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