[consulting] Established clients seeking technical training.

[Evan Leibovitch]

2009/11/17 Sam Cohen <sam at samcohen.com>

I think a lot of folks here do you a disservice by dismissing your concern
> that teaching your friend might result in you losing work.  That is a very
> real and legitimate concern.


The concern is not that you'll lose work. That's almost a given if your
client is looking to (and skilled enough to) do some of the ordinary
maintenance themselves.

The concern is whether your need to maximise your own billable hours is
worth destroying a trust relationship that may threaten all your business
with that client and beyond.

It's all about customer service, and giving your client what they want. Stop
doing that and someone else will. The comfort zone is far more fragile than
you think, especially if the client starts to believe that you're no longer
looking out for their best interest.

You may find that a little Drupal training of your client -- by you or
someone else of quality that you trust -- will not reduce their need for you
as much as you think. Training may demonstrate to your client how many parts
of Drupal config and maintenance are best left in the hands of an
experienced professional. Or the client may become comfortable in drawing a
line between routine maintenance work (that they can do) and site-critical
maintenance which they will continue to entrust to you. It may be less work
but they'll be happy with you and recommend you to others.

Or... they will try some DIY, mess it up, and you'll be the hero doing the
cleanup (at double what it would have cost for you to do it right the first
time).

But the WORST thing you can do (IMO, of course) is to be either dismissive
or unhelpful in response to your client's request. This sends the absolutely
wrong messages to your client; any of the following could be inferred by
your blowing off their request:

- You don't trust their judgement in making their own IT decisions
- You don't think they're smart enough to do routine maintenance
- You're hiding from them that it's easy to do (and so they're easy money
for you)
- You're trying to be indepespensible, attempting a form of vendor lock-in

Indeed, some of these may indeed be the case in the relationship. But
exposing them this way will poison the environment. At best, they'll
continue to request your services but mistrust your future advice. At worst,
they'll be looking for a replacement ASAP.

Moreover, think of the consequences beyond this one client. So much service
business is driven by word-of-mouth (well, at least has been is for me) that
you can ill afford to tick off a cornerstone client that has until now been
utterly pleased with your work.

If you choose not to "assist in your own obsolescence", so to speak, you
send them into the marketplace where a competitor (without your concerns)
will gladly fill the gap. And then you risk losing ALL the client's
business, as well as any subsequent referrals.

As the Drupal service marketplace gets more crowded, there will often be
someone willing to do your work cheaper or faster than you. Ultimately the
only thing that makes you stand out from the competition, and worth the
extra money, is your reputation. And the reputation you want is NOT as
someone who is seen to think of maximising billing over the client's best
interest. That's like a doctor getting a rep for recommending needless
surgery, or a taxi that takes a roundabout route to your destination to pump
up the fare. It's just my experience that consumers -- whether as
individuals or people in charge of IT at businesses -- have a visceral
negative reaction to being treated that way. It's just not worth the risk
IMO.

- Evan
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