When a Client Team Asks for You by Name

Updated September 2026: in January 2020 an onsite team I had worked with came back with a new request addressed directly to me, so my manager and I had to take it on. I have rewritten it into advice on handling requests when a client team asks for you by name.

After finishing a tough opportunity with my manager, I hoped the next one would be calmer. On Monday, the same onsite team returned with a new request, addressed straight to me. Neither my manager nor I felt we could decline. I set up a call with onsite and offshore teams to align, and a delivery person I had worked with before joined.

Is being requested by name a good sign?

Yes. It means the team trusts your work and finds you easy to work with. It is also a sign of your value to the account, worth noting at appraisal time. The downside is that it can bypass normal allocation and pile work on you.

How should you respond to a direct request?

• Acknowledge it quickly and thank them for thinking of you.
• Copy your manager and let them confirm the allocation.
• Ask for scope and dates before committing to a timeline.

How do you avoid becoming the default for everything?

Share credit and knowledge. Introduce a colleague on the call, and let them handle part of the work. Over time the team trusts more than one person, which protects your capacity and helps your colleague grow.

What should the first alignment call cover?

The client's need, the deliverable, who approves it, the timeline, and anything learned from the last opportunity with the same team. If the last one had repeated changes, agree a change process now. A familiar team makes the start faster, but it can also bring back old habits.

Should you worry about working with the same team again?

Only if the previous work was painful for reasons that still apply. If so, raise them at the start, politely: "Last time the requirements changed late; can we agree a checkpoint with the client this time?" Direct requests give you some leverage to set better terms.

Keep reading

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• Validate the Brief Before Building the Deck