The last posting in this series will reveal the one secret ingredient that allowed us to survive this entire “learning experience” case study with our “New Fangled Website”. The one thing that ensured, at the end of the day, that we actually DID end up with a product, however delayed it was. It’s not a secret project management technique. It’s not a process or scientific concept. It was a relationship that I’ve conveniently glossed over to spotlight our learning more clearly. But now it’s time to reveal the secret ingredient – this relationship that literally saved our butts, our sanity and our project.
From the beginning of our relationship with this vendor, we were introduced to the Sales Manager, a gregarious, likable guy with a mean sense of humor that we’ll call “John”. At the beginning of our relationship, we didn’t have much contact with John, dealing with rotating account reps on our project. As things started going south, we began having more and more contact with John, bypassing the account reps to deal directly with him. He was the one person in the vendor organization that leveled with us, seemed to understand our perspective and advocated on our behalf with the Web Developer and CEO.
Even when things got rough and our frustration level grew, he continued to answer the phone…sometimes at odd hours of the night…and talked us off the ledge. In hindsight, he was put in a terribly difficult position – representing his company while still trying to advocate for us, the customer, even when our position wasn’t popular. He maintained the only level of professionalism we saw from that vendor after our initial meeting. We trusted him and felt comfortable continuing to be honest with him. We kept him in the loop for the most part, even when our attorney got involved.
It would’ve been easier for him to write us off as a “difficult client” and shy away from advocating on our behalf. It would’ve been easier to lie. To conceal. To allow our calls to go unanswered. But he didn’t. He stepped up to face the music, played the intermediary between us and the vendor. To ensure the success of the project. To ensure that we had a website after investing pretty much all the capital we had.
All the tools we’ve discussed over the past week in this blog are valuable and useful for entrepreneurs and small business owners and can bring your project to the next level, to be sure. But at the end of the day, it truly does come down to the people with whom you interact. Their integrity level. Their belief in what you’re trying to accomplish. And similarly, your integrity level, your commitment to the project. So, above all else, pay attention to the people. Their purpose. Your purpose. Do they match? If not, keep moving.
We were fortunate enough to happen upon a “project angel” in John, for which we remain eternally grateful. The lessons John taught us about maintaining professionalism and integrity in a firestorm may be the most valuable thing we learned through our tumultuous experience. At the end of the day, projects get done because outstanding people are committed to getting them done.
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