We recently met with a potential partner who is admittedly clueless about Magento development and has a project that keeps dragging on. He asked us to step in to help. Being the sales guy that I am, I was ready to jump right in. Being the responsible developer that he is, Lee was hesitant to even be a part of the discussion. We both felt some rub with the approach.
The great part about healthy teams is that a foundation of trust and respect makes it easier for conflict to lead to a better outcome than any individual could arrive at on their own. In our case, Lee’s concern slowed down the conversation and made for a very healthy reality check with the partner . After a quick conversation with his client, the partner modified the project scope to something more realistic and asked us to throw together an estimate for it. Not only will we create an immediate benefit for the partner by finishing the project and creating cashflow, we will also built a solid relationship with this partner who likes us and will most likely choose to work with us on future Magento stores.
I am convinced that this type of interaction would not have happened even 2 months ago. This is the sort of trust and mutual respect that is developed over time. If you are looking for this type of team to interact with for your Magento store, theme, customization, or module then we would be happy to speak with you. Just drop us a message on this form and we’ll be in touch.
This guy you talk about sounds like he’s got the right idea! I’d like to meet him!
But all in all seriousness, I agree with your post. I would add that not only is it important for the foundation of trust to occur within the organisation, but also outside. Based on your other post mentioning 37 Signals, being open to the public and becoming recognised as a company who really knows what they’re doing has huge benefits.
A prime example of this is how I originally found Elias. I had a huge Magento problem, I posted a message on Twitter about it, and not only were Elias the first people recommended to me, but I also got a frienly email and a tweet back from you guys within 15 minutes.
From an outsider’s perspective it’s this sort of thing that creates trust amongst partners / customers, and as a result it also gains you a huge amount of respect right off the line.
In my opinion, respect is just about the most under-rated value in the service industry. If people respect you then they see your advice as “professional advice”, if people don’t respect you then they see your advice as “just an opinion”. And I think we all know which of those two we’d prefer!
Lucky for us I was on Twitter at the time!