Consulting Project Enhancements and Follow-Ups

The completion of a project is not necessarily the end of a customer relationship.  To the contrary, consulting project enhancements are a common way to keep that relationship alive.  When that fails, a follow-up project also has a higher likelihood of being won than a new one.  Take advantage of these options to keep your business thriving.

The first path to review is pitching enhancements.  These are almost a slam dunk if you take good notes during the project creation process.  There will be items scoped out of the project early in the requirements gathering through to the last minute.  Even as late as deployment due to resource constraints.  Every one of these is an opportunity for an enhancement release that includes it.

There will also be ideas and features that come up during discussions with the customer.  Some of these will be added as change requests, but some will be passed up for future enhancements.  Once again, each of those is a candidate on your list of consulting project enhancements.

Follow-up calls are another great tool for keeping a client current.  I recommend you start with one a few weeks after the deployment.  This timing will allow for unforeseen issues to pop up as well as feedback from the final users.  I have seen this sort of follow-up approach lengthen the life of a customer to many times the original agreement.  If all is well, another follow-up a few months later or on a calendar basis.  The beginning of the year tends to be safe.  However, it is best to touch base with customers around the start of their budget process.  This time frame is best suited for getting added on to a budget and getting signed up for a large project instead of a quick fix.

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