Property development is all about persistence. You will never make it to the finish line (at least on time and on budget) without unwavering persistence in almost everything you do. Persistence is about challenging the status quo and not accepting mediocrity. Persistence is about persevering to find a better, faster, cheaper or more valuable alternative to the solution that is first presented. It’s persistence with people that is most important. Persistence to a point of course! It’s a fine line between being just persistent enough to achieve what you need and being a pain in the butt that paradoxically slows things down.
This series ‘Persistence Pays’ is my who’s who list to be persistent with and when you might need to restrain yourself.
Consultants
These are the professionals you have signed fee agreements with to deliver advice and documentation for a healthy (often hefty) fee. If you have negotiated appropriately then they will all have fixed deadlines in which to perform. Most likely though included in the fine print will be enough disclaimers to provide the excuse that they need more time to do this or that. Being facetious for a moment: architects are notorious for being late, engineers are terrible at getting back to you in a timely manner and project managers may be so busy with other clients you are not their number one priority.
As much as they like to tell you otherwise before you have signed the fee agreement, my experience is that you need to drive consultants persistently to perform. Let’s name this ‘persistaformance’.
Not all require considerable follow-up, but certainly plenty of them, and it gets worse when the industry is busy. I can usually tell from the initial email exchange where a consultant lies on the tardiness scale. If they start off with a poor, confusing or even arrogant communication trail, it probably isn’t going to get better. A few manage to be all communicative at the start and then after they have been engaged, deteriorate over time. One pet peeve is when consultants are all keen and willing to take on multiple projects for you. Later, months down the track, they ask you to tell them which of your projects takes priority because they have too much work on! They should have planned their resource to deal with all your projects concurrently, when they first took on your engagements. Much of the time it’s not that the consultant is being unprofessional it’s just that your number one priority is not theirs.
Now you don’t need to tread as lightly compared to dealing with the bureaucracy. You are paying these professionals after all. You should be firm and set high expectations (remember you should have done this when you restarted the project). And be relentless in your follow-up when you are not receiving deliverables in adequate time. Don’t take the excuse bait that quality will be compromised.
A final note: for persistaformance to be achieved you must live up to your end of the bargain and pay consultants on time when they do deliver.
The moral of this section: Persistence has a pay-off. Without persistence, development projects can flounder and every day equals extra dollars.
Andrew Crosby
+64 21 982 444
andrew@xpectproperty.com
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