How do I make my customers not like me too much?
- by fuzzbone
In 2004 I went to work for a consulting firm because I like variety, challenges, working with new technologies, etc. However, I've been a developer for 25 years - and spent the majority of my career as a direct-hire (12 years) then as an independent consultant for another 3 years (ah the DotCom bubble!) for one firm. So my instincts are more like a good internal developer than a consultant.
My problem is what I call the "catch-22" of consulting. You go into consulting because you want to work at a lot of different engagements, but if you do a really good job your clients never want to let you go. And of course the salespeople are happy to keep you billing (and don’t want to alienate a good customer)
So my question is – how do I overcome this? I have had some colleagues who had just the right type of “arrogance” (for lack of a better term) that made them initially attractive to some clients, but would grate on them over time – but that just isn’t my style.
I want to do good work and be successful for my clients, but be able to “gracefully” move on after a reasonable amount of time.
