Whenever a new project starts, you are going to a client to get acquainted, and you feel as if you would go to the first date, actually, the blind date. And you don’t really know:
– what’s waiting for you there: a person silent like a fish giving short simple answers in such way as “Yeah”, “Yes”, “No”, “I don’t know”;
– or you will meet a “one-man band” and, for a couple of hours, you will have to listen, listen and listen about everything and everyone in the word, … and a little bit about the project itself;
– or you may meet a terse business person who needs just 15 minutes to discuss the most important things?
And there is the so-called “train of relations” that is associated with the person promoting the project. The client gets accustomed to communicate with the seller and then automatically carries his or her impressions and relationships to the PM: he or she expects the same way of speaking and behavior, speed of response, etc.
And then, for a certain period of time, he or she renders the same project objectives to the seller. And you seem to be like a fifth wheel.
So, the first meeting with the Client is not only a “blind date” but also a “blind date with a woman fallen in love with another man”.