The tone of this comment sounds a little aggressive, but, in my experience, the following is the truest advice:
> clients don't pick up the phone and call you because you do good work, they pick up the phone and call you because they remember who you are and like you
People want to work with people they like (and to like them they first need to meet them).
They'd rather work with people they like, that do good work, than people they like that do bad work, but given the choice, they will pick people they know and like, that are mediocre, over "superstars" that they don't know and/or don't like.
Which means
- if you don't have direct access to the final ("real") customer, you're mostly wasting your time
- extra hours spent turning out stellar work would be a 1000 times more productive/useful getting to know your clients on a personal basis
- relationships with "customers" will only last as long as the people you're interacting with stay at the company; when people change companies, it's sometimes more effective to follow them to their new home than try to build a new relationship with the new team at the old company
- intermediaries are vampires; do not go near them. They fear light: expose them and they will flee.
Good luck.
> clients don't pick up the phone and call you because you do good work, they pick up the phone and call you because they remember who you are and like you
People want to work with people they like (and to like them they first need to meet them).
They'd rather work with people they like, that do good work, than people they like that do bad work, but given the choice, they will pick people they know and like, that are mediocre, over "superstars" that they don't know and/or don't like.
Which means
- if you don't have direct access to the final ("real") customer, you're mostly wasting your time
- extra hours spent turning out stellar work would be a 1000 times more productive/useful getting to know your clients on a personal basis
- relationships with "customers" will only last as long as the people you're interacting with stay at the company; when people change companies, it's sometimes more effective to follow them to their new home than try to build a new relationship with the new team at the old company
- intermediaries are vampires; do not go near them. They fear light: expose them and they will flee.
Good luck.