How To Effectively Work With Clients
How To Consult With Clients And Work With Them
Independent grant consultants learn quickly that working with clients can be an art form in and of itself. Clients will ask for grant money and work with a grant consultant for many different reasons and needs. Before calling the grant consultant, not many clients will know what the best solution is for their project. For the client to be able to submit a competitive proposal or application, the grant consultant must be able to help them narrow their thoughts and put them in order.
How To Effectively Work With Clients
Getting information from the client is often the hardest and most time-consuming part of putting together a grant proposal. Many clients think that there is "free money" and funding for "any idea they can think of." They agree with this because they "heard of someone" who got a lot of grant money to do the same thing.
Know Your Clients
The truth is that this information is either wrong or very unlikely. Consultants usually have to spend some time at the beginning of the process teaching their clients how the process works and what kinds of projects are more likely to get funded than others. Sometimes, the client may have something else in mind. It is especially hard to get financial information from clients. Some clients just want money, any kind of money. If one idea isn't good enough, they'll try another one, and another one, and another one.
In many research-based grant applications, the Engineer or PI is worried that the reviewers will steal their ideas if they talk about the real technology and innovative process of their project. This reluctance can make it take longer to get enough information to write a competitive story, or it could make people so nervous that they won't give any information at all.
There are two ways to work with clients. Pick your clients with care. Clients often do research on the grant writer, but the grant writer should also do research on the client. Don't get involved with bad business. It is better to give the client advice on how to become "grant eligible" in the future than to take on a client who can't get funding right now. Make sure that the client's values, goals, and approach are all good. This will make working together more fun for both of you.
Getting-to-Know-Your-Clients.pdfRemember that in the end, the client, not the consultants, decides what should or should not be included. Even if the grant consultant gives good advice, the client is the one who decides what goes into the final grant application. The goal of a grant consultant is to help the client get the best information for making decisions.
Working-With-Clients-When-to-Fire-Your-Client.docx