In yesterday’s example of a mid-project change, some readers commented it was a fairly minor change (switching from Zapier to Make). Some asked what can be done if it’s a larger change during a fixed-priced project. In essence, this is a question about scope creep.
For small changes that will benefit the client, don’t think twice about it. Make the change and move forward.
If change is significant, here are a few ways to handle it.
Start by asking yourself whether this change will help their business goal. It’s possible you didn’t consider some factors while building your proposal, and the client has a great idea. Or perhaps you uncovered something you didn’t initially see and you believe the change is the right thing to do.
If this is the case, roll-up your sleeves and honor your commitment. This recently happened to me, and I wrote about it here: A lesson learned about value based pricing.
If you don’t believe the change will help their goal, ask the client for their opinion. If they want to make a change for the sake of it, and it won’t have a positive impact on their desired outcome, call them out.
Something like, “How will changing from Zapier to Make help you see all your financial transactions in Salesforce and allow your sales team to focus on popular products?”
Most likely, they won’t have a strong answer. If they do, decide for yourself whether what they say has merit. You can always allocate things in a subsequent phase. “This is a great idea but it’s not part of the current solution. Let’s save this for the refinement phase.”
The takeaway
Remember, you’re *not* an order taker. Just because the client believes what they say will help, they are not the Salesforce expert. You are and that’s why they hired you. So it’s your call to decide whether to make the change, ignore it, or push it for a later phase.