Landing on client

 Whenever I talk to other project leads and consultancy managers one of the commonest topics is landing on client.

This is a key scenario for good communication, and there are a few hidden traps that are really easy to fall into. I've listed some of them below as an intro of what to watch out for.

I'm looking forward to learning about...

On the face of it, a phrase like this shows enthusiasm. The pitfall is that the client is paying for expertise, not for you to learn on their time.

Try phrases like "looking forward to seeing how you've implemented X", or "interested to understand your problem domain in more depth", or even just "looking forward to seeing where I can add some value".

I've only been with the company...

This is a bit context dependent. It's fine if you've been with your firm a few months, but if you've literally just started a week ago and are landing straight on client... maybe best not mention it. Say "I joined fairly recently" or something like that, leave enough room for the client to interpret it as "I've done some training and demonstrated my competence a bit". The most important impression we can give as consultants is established competence, and admitting to being a noob doesn't build confidence.

If you have no experience at all

This is a situation we see sometimes where new grads are landing on their first client. You can avoid the question of experience just by talking about what you're interested in (as long as it's relevant to their problem or tech of course!) rather than what you've done. Simply don't bring the subject of experience up if it's going to be a hard thing to talk about. This is a lot easier if you're not the first one to speak - plan ahead and talk to your team mates.

Errr....

You are almost certainly going to be asked to introduce yourself. Have a short pitch prepared, just 1-2 minutes about your history/experience/interests. Try to make it as relevant as possible to the job you're there to do. Ideally add in a tiny bit about who you are outside of work, but the balance needs to be about your experience and credentials. Prepare this before your first day!

If you don't have much experience in the client's stack/domain, try to lean on the things that are as relevant or transferable as possible.

Conversely, there are some things that are really useful to do in your first day or two:

Learn who's who

Make some notes about the people you've talked to, what their jobs are and what they are interested in. Be very careful not to make a written note of anything negative - if there's anything like that, just keep it in your head.

Make some tentative plans

What do you want to achieve while you're here? Who can help you? What are your first impressions of the client? You'll soon be neck deep in project work, so take this time to get your plans in order.

Summary

First impressions are notoriously persistent. Think about what impression you want the client to get of you. Talk to your project leadership about what meetings are happening, and what to say/not to say.