Once we frame the opportunity with what they are trying to accomplish, as well as ‘When?’ ‘Why?’ and ‘What if you don’t?’ we can begin our reverse-engineering process. First, we step backward through the events and actions that need to take place during the Implementation and Utilization Process.
You are the expert here; or someone else on your team is. Your client will look to you for guidance and advice on how to use the products and services you sell to achieve their desired business results. You will provide an estimate on how long it will take to implement your solution. Depending on what you sell, there might be project planning, installation, customization, development, pilot testing, prototypes, or whatever.
It’s important to begin to let your customer know what’s involved in making your solutions work even early in the process. The last thing you would want to do is submit a proposal that includes months of implementation or set-up time when their expectation was weeks. This is all part of properly managing client expectations.
The more your client can understand about the Implementation and Utilization Process, the better. Now, I don’t mean we want to over- whelm them and scare them with an elaborate implementation plan in the first meeting. What I am referring to here is dealing with the fear of ‘What’s going to happen after we buy?’ Let’s keep in mind that . . .
People are naturally afraid of the unknown. We should try to eliminate as many unknowns about the Implementation and Utilization Process as we possibly can.
The more comfortable and confident your customer feels about your ability to help them get from ‘B’ to ‘C,’ the less anxiety they will have about moving from ‘A’ to ‘B.’ You might want to start by just offering a rough estimate. Depending on what’s involved with implementing your solutions you might say, ‘Most of our clients allow 90-120 days to complete the implementation.’ Then you can fill in the details later on as you understand more about the specifics of the project and their available resources. Be careful not to set unrealistic expectations. It’s better to err on the high side for implementation time than to tell them ninety days, only to have it end up taking ten months.
Here again, resist the urge to propose what you can do to help them until they have had a chance to tell you everything about what they want to accomplish. Make sure they have said all they want to say and are now ready to listen. Through interchange and discussion you’ll come up with the beginnings of a timeline that you can share with the client when it seems like they are ready to hear and understand it. Here’s an example of what this might look like:
June 1 Commence implementation with a project team planning meeting
June 20 Requirements and specifications completed
July 15 Customization and development completed
July 30 Installation and configuration completed
Aug 15 Integration with existing systems completed
Sept 1 Pilot testing completed
Sept 12 User training completed
Sept 30 Go live
Depending on the complexity of what you sell, you may be able to offer this high-level sketch fairly early on. For others, it will take a team of people a number of weeks to hash this out. In the latter case, you may only be able to say, ‘We should allow at least 120 days for implementation.’ Obviously, when we create an actual project plan there will be dozens of little deadlines and hundreds of little tasks that will be part of the overall implementation plan. This is just a skeleton view, for now.
What we are trying to do is establish the fact that in order to start seeing results by September 30, we will need to get started by June 1, which means they will need to work through their Selection and Buying Process before then. Some customers will come to you with their own timeline, but if they do, make sure their expectations are appropriate and realistic. One common mistake customers make is underestimating the time it takes to properly implement solutions. If we don’t take the time, even if it means risking a confrontation with our client, to properly reset expectations, we can easily set ourselves up for a mighty upset customer somewhere down the road.