Worldwide Clinical Trials recently had the opportunity to sit down with Nicola Thorne, our Vice President of Project Management, to discuss ways to build and maintain lasting client relationships based on mutual trust and transparency. With extensive expertise across various projects and a unique perspective from experience on both the CRO and sponsor side, Nicola’s leadership in the field has made her a trusted advisor in ensuring client satisfaction and project success. Here’s what she had to share :
Q: What advice would you give to project managers on building and maintaining strong, trusting relationships with clients?
Nicola’s top advice to other project managers is to spend time with your clients and invest in the people. People are what matter, and by spending quality time getting to know your clients, it’s possible to understand “the why.” For example, why were the protocols designed in a particular way? What is most important to the sponsor regarding this study? Are the primary endpoints aligned with those goals? Once “the why” is understood, it’s considerably easier to support them and be fully aligned with their needs.
Additionally, she recommends coming into the relationship with a drug development mindset. As project managers, it’s critical to be a stakeholder and bring your knowledge and expertise to the table, rather than taking the backseat in a conversation. The largest problem project managers often encounter is when clients don’t know what we’re doing on the CRO side, so make sure to overcommunicate.
Not only should you overcommunicate, but you should also be flexible and ready to solve problems. Instead of being quick to say no to an additional ask, sit down with the client and understand the why behind the ask. By respectfully engaging with clients while maintaining Good Clinical Practice, ethics, and patient safety, both your relationship with the client and the study will experience increased success.
Q: How do you approach problem-solving with the client?
Whenever a problem arises with the client, it’s imperative to take the time to understand what the concern is. Essentially, by understanding the problem in-depth — the who, what, why, when, and how — it’s possible to get the right stakeholders involved and foster increased collaboration. Through collaboration, you can generate the necessary data and metrics, allowing you and your team to propose informed solutions.
More often than not, Nicola explains, clients are frustrated not because of an issue, but because no one has provided a solution. That’s why a critical aspect of problem-solving is to own the problem and show the client how you’re going to fix it through transparent and open communication.
Q: Can you provide an example of a significant issue you resolved together?
Nicola tells us how she helped resolve a significant issue with a client when critical samples needed for a primary endpoint had not been tracked with regard to stability. The samples were out of stability, which could have meant that they were no longer viable to be analyzed for the study’s primary endpoint.
Nicola first owned the issue, and then immediately contacted the labs to determine if we could extend the stability and establish new timelines. She identified additional costs and other integral factors. From there, we were able to conduct extended stability tests at the lab, which indicated that the samples remained stable for much longer than initially expected.
Once an issue is resolved, Nicola stresses that the most paramount aspect in problem-solving is not only fixing the issue but communicating internally about how to prevent this issue from happening again. It’s crucial to determine process roadblocks, where interactions were missed between the lab and sponsor, and ways to improve overall processes. Once this is completed, project managers must ensure follow-through on that plan and provide proactive updates to the sponsor.
Q: Can you share a moment when the client’s trust in you or the team was especially tested, and how you navigated that situation? Were there any specific actions that had a large impact on improving the relationship?
Nicola shares how a situation where critical samples needed for the primary endpoint were not analyzed caused broken trust with the client. One solution that significantly built back up trust over time was conducting a regular partnership survey. Worldwide and the sponsor developed the questions in collaboration and completed their answers independently. From there, both sides came together to discuss the responses, get feedback from each other to understand what was going on – both positive and negative. As a result, both sides received invaluable information to propel the partnership in the right direction.
Along with the partnership survey that proved highly successful, another way that Nicola mentions to improve client relationships is to focus on face-to-face interactions. While in-person meetings are not always feasible, ensure cameras are on during online check-ins to show engagement and active listening. Taking the time to truly get to know the client and celebrating when their team members go above and beyond can go a long way in enhancing trust.
Other recommendations to navigate these situations include:
- Meet with the internal team to understand the issues
- Meet with the relevant sponsor counterparts to understand the frustrations
- Work on building the relationship with the client through time and effort
- Determine what is not being delivered, why, and how that impacts the sponsor
- Listen and empower your team
- Come prepared for calls
- Pull in support when needed
- Celebrate successes, both big and small
Q: What measures do you take to ensure that the client is always informed about project progress, including both successes and challenges?
To ensure the client is always informed about project progress, Nicola stresses that it all comes down to trust, alignment, and transparency. Frequent communication is key and is often the element where teams tend to struggle the most. That’s why monthly catch-ups can prove extremely beneficial to provide updates while also offering an opportunity to establish a natural rapport with the client.
Preparation for these governance meetings is an essential component to their success. Having a clear communication plan in place with regular updates for the client to align on key performance indicators can ensure that you’re on track with the client’s expectations. It’s also important to use these meetings to celebrate recent accomplishments, highlight upcoming study milestones, and make the team aware of potential risks, with mitigation plans proposed alongside.
Q: When looking to the future, what will help continue to grow and maintain client relationships?
The top priority in growing and maintaining client relationships is to deliver on promises to the best of your ability and ensure your team does not get complacent. Client relationships, like any relationship, require time and effort. Given that goals change, perspectives shift, and new team members join, it’s crucial to constantly revisit the client’s strategic objectives. Through checking in and asking the right questions, you can further enhance trust and transparency.
Being proactive is also an integral aspect of the relationship, as having the right metrics in place before the client has a chance to say that there’s a problem can make a world of difference in the rapport. Problems will always arise on a study; the concern is when we, as project managers, don’t know that there’s a problem since we can’t proactively manage what we don’t know about.
Nicola further emphasizes the importance of establishing face-to-face personal connections, owning deliverables, being prepared, hitting the basics, offering flexibility and adaptability, and truly embracing the partnership mindset. We want to be as excited as the sponsor is when we see study success, and to have a shared vision and collaborative problem-solving approach to reach the end goal, which ultimately is to improve patient lives.
Learn More About the Value of Project Managers at Worldwide
At Worldwide, we prioritize the client experience by ensuring our dedicated project managers are here to support your study every step of the way. In fact, data from the Industry Standard Report showed that Worldwide Clinical Trials was the highest-rated Phase II/III CRO for Project Manager Quality for the second consecutive year. Learn why we were so highly ranked for our services, and get in touch with our team today. Together, we can help you achieve your clinical trial goals and drive meaningful outcomes.
