{"id":702,"date":"2013-03-13T11:58:16","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T11:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/?p=702"},"modified":"2025-04-15T09:37:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T09:37:39","slug":"involve-senior-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Steps to Improved Customer Relations: Involve Senior Management"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">In Part 1, we looked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/give-something-away\/\">the concept of giving something away<\/a> for free to your project customer as a way of improving overall customer relations. Everyone likes \u2018<em>free<\/em>\u2019 \u2013 especially if they need what they are getting for free.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><!--more-->\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/platform\/try\/\" onclick=\"ga('send', 'event', 'abtest', 'platform-banner-click');\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"pl-banner\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cmw-platform-banner.png\" class=\"img-fluid my-5\" alt=\"CMW Platform banner\" title=\"CMW Platform banner\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">In this Part 2 we\u2019ll discuss the idea of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/project-management-software\/\">involving your senior management in the project<\/a> as a way of improving the client-vendor relationship. Few things make your customer feel more important than seeing or hearing the delivery organization\u2019s CEO in a meeting with them or on a regular customer status call.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\u201cFew things make your customer feel more important than seeing or hearing the delivery organization\u2019s CEO in a meeting with them or on a regular customer status call.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_28 counter-hierarchy counter-decimal ez-toc-grey\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" style=\"display: none;\"><label for=\"item\" aria-label=\"Table of Content\"><i class=\"ez-toc-glyphicon ez-toc-icon-toggle\"><\/i><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\" id=\"item\"><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class=\"ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1\"><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/#Paving_the_way\" title=\"Paving the way\">Paving the way<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/#Meet_with_the_target_representative\" title=\"Meet with the target representative\">Meet with the target representative<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/#Connecting_senior_management_with_the_customer\" title=\"Connecting senior management with the customer\">Connecting senior management with the customer<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/involve-senior-management\/#Summary\" title=\"Summary\">Summary<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Paving_the_way\"><\/span>Paving the way<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">The last thing you want is to drag in a senior representative of your company into a status call with the project customer and have them know nothing about the project or the customer or any important issues that may be discussed on the call. You don\u2019t want just a figurehead on the call \u2013 that could end up harming your project more than helping it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">Ideally, you have been keeping your project visible to senior management by sending them a copy of your weekly customer packet of revised status report, budget status, issues list, and project schedule \u2013 or at the very least the revised status report. If so, then they have no excuse to be at least somewhat up to speed. And if not, then now is the time to start sending your project info to them on a regular basis. Make them tell you they don\u2019t want to see it \u2013 and then the onus is on them for that decision.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Meet_with_the_target_representative\"><\/span>Meet with the target representative<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"706\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/senior-management.png\" alt=\"senior management\" width=\"202\" height=\"202\" style=\"float:right;margin:10px;\" \/>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">Next, contact someone on the executive team and lay out your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmwlab.com\/blog\/update-your-project-plan-automatically\/\">project plan<\/a>. Explain the issues \u2013 if there are any \u2013 and why you want them to be on the call. Help them get up to speed on any key issues or things that might be discussed on the call with the customer. As I stated, they need to participate on the call to at least some degree and sound knowledgeable or it won\u2019t do anything to improve your customer relations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Connecting_senior_management_with_the_customer\"><\/span>Connecting senior management with the customer<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">Finally, conduct the call and introduce the individual at the beginning of the call when you do your normal \u2018<em>role call<\/em>\u2019 on the conference line. If there is a specific topic that they are there to address then you can mention it. If they are present just to boost customer confidence and satisfaction, then just include them in proper high-level topical discussions as you see fit on the call. Some productive participation will do the trick\u2026 they won\u2019t need to be actively participating throughout the call unless there is a major issue being discussed that will monopolize the entire call.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Summary\"><\/span>Summary<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">No matter what, when the executive management of any organization is represented in project client meetings, that project client feels like they are having the red carpet rolled out for them. Typically, the project customer has been paying top dollar for a project manager who &#8211; while being extremely capable and professional &#8211; still sits much lower in the organizational hierarchy than the senior management of the company.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-indent:10px;\">So whether you\u2019re experiencing problems on the project or not, your customer will feel like their project is now very important and visible to your organization just by the mere presence of your CEO or whoever sits in on the next status call or key meeting with your project customer. Improved \u2013 or just boosted &#8211; customer relations will be the likely result.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<section class=\"author bg-light border\">\r\n    <section class=\"row p-3 p-sm-5 align-items-center\">\r\n        <aside class=\"col-sm-3 col-4\">\r\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author__img img-fluid rounded-circle\" title=\"Brad Egeland\" alt=\"Brad Egeland\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/brad-egeland.jpg\">\r\n        <\/aside>\r\n        <article class=\"col-sm-9 col\">\r\n            <p class=\"author__text\">Brad Egeland is a Business Solution Designer and IT\/PM consultant and author with over 25 years of software development, management, and project management experience. <br\/>Brad is married, a father of 9, and living in sunny Las Vegas, NV.<br\/>Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bradegeland.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Brad's site<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n        <\/article>\r\n    <\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Part 1, we looked at the concept of giving something away for free to your project customer as a way of improving overall customer relations. Everyone likes \u2018free\u2019 \u2013 especially if they need what they are getting for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-popular-topics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Improve Your Customer Relationship Through Senior Management Involvment to the Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brad Egeland shares his thoughts on things you can do to improve your customer relations by involving your company&#039;s senior management to the project.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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