How to do client interviews

Introduction

It’s a rare person who relishes asking difficult questions. In my own business it took me years to realize that asking difficult questions, was in fact essential to the acceptance of any proposal and the success of a project.

Sometimes in our eagerness to close a deal, we accept anything our potential client tells us as gospel. They chose us and that’s good enough. We move forward without giving too much thought to whether we should.

While this way of working can generate some success for lower-end projects, it’s certainly not a formula for growth. To consistently win bigger and better projects, you need to get to the difficult questions early on. Client Interviews are the best place to do this, and they are the key to winning more proposals. Seriously.

Client Interviews will give you:

• A clearer idea of the problem your client is facing.
• They will help you discover whether you can actually help them.
• They will give you the language necessary to write an impactful proposal (more about that later)
• They will allow you to deliver a proposal that comes in on budget (and sometimes over, but more about that later too)

Sounds good? Let’s get you started.

We hope you enjoy this guide, and we hope it will improve your next client interview!