Difficult Client Conversations

03/22/22 • 38 min

1 Listener

This episode looks at the inevitability of difficult conversations happening with clients and how we manage them so as not to damage (and even improve) relationships. In this episode, Gary has an EASY chat with his Questas colleague Paul Brady about what to do when the temperature rises in conversations and how we dissipate the heat. As ever there's plenty of practical tools and ideas for you to use in your next difficult conversation!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Difficult conversations with clients can come about for two reasons. It could be the rational, such as scope creep, delivering bad news, a negotiation around finance, team issues. Those sorts of things are fairly typical and make sense for it being a difficult conversation with a client. Then it could be a more personal or irrational reason less based around work.
There are three triggers that can be the cause of the irrational difficult conversations. These three triggers are, truth, relationship, and identity.
When you notice that someone has been triggered, your aim is to dissipate the heat. Allow people to vent and don't interrupt, let them get it off their chest. Then you have to reflect back to them what their concerns are, without putting your own inflection on it. It's not agreeing, just acknowledging that you have understood and heard them.
If you can deal with the three E's, explanation, expectation, and engagement, then you will be able to manage a difficult client conversation much better.
Having the right conversations pre project can help reduce the number of difficult conversations in the future. That in itself can be a difficult conversation but one to reduce any future ones.
Depersonalise things, it's not about the people, it's the situation.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It's inevitable that there will be difficult client conversations, but you need to manage them and mitigate the impact'

‘Things always go wrong and we always remain surprised'

‘Great meetings are build upon rapport rather than negotiation'

‘Once we've got the heat out, we're back in rational conversation land'

‘You can be a sponge but you can't be a punchbag'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy

questas.co.uk/difficult-client-conversations

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Difficult conversations with clients can come about for two reasons. It could be the rational, such as scope creep, delivering bad news, a negotiation around finance, team issues. Those sorts of things are fairly typical and make sense for it being a difficult conversation with a client. Then it could be a more personal or irrational reason less based around work.
There are three triggers that can be the cause of the irrational difficult conversations. These three triggers are, truth, relationship, and identity.
When you notice that someone has been triggered, your aim is to dissipate the heat. Allow people to vent and don't interrupt, let them get it off their chest. Then you have to reflect back to them what their concerns are, without putting your own inflection on it. It's not agreeing, just acknowledging that you have understood and heard them.
If you can deal with the three E's, explanation, expectation, and engagement, then you will be able to manage a difficult client conversation much better.
Having the right conversations pre project can help reduce the number of difficult conversations in the future. That in itself can be a difficult conversation but one to reduce any future ones.
Depersonalise things, it's not about the people, it's the situation.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It's inevitable that there will be difficult client conversations, but you need to manage them and mitigate the impact'

‘Things always go wrong and we always remain surprised'

‘Great meetings are build upon rapport rather than negotiation'

‘Once we've got the heat out, we're back in rational conversation land'

‘You can be a sponge but you can't be a punchbag'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy

questas.co.uk/difficult-client-conversations

ABOUT THE HOST

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Why Training in BD and Client Management Doesn’t Work Unless you Have Well Trained Leaders

Business development and client relation management is part of a trinity with leadership and management. That's the glue that holds organisations together that Gary will be discussing this week on Work Winning Ways. Find out why training in business development and client management doesn't work unless you have well trained leaders.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

People aren't prepared to say within an organisation where either they're fearful about what is required of them or that they're not heard. Businesses need to have psychological safety to retain good team members. You should have an environment that encourages people's ideas to be listened to and given due consideration.
The introverts among us are happy to not contribute, despite possibly having some good ideas in their heads. A good leader would be able to get those ideas out of those people and encourage thinking diversity.
The SCARF Model was developed in 2008 by David Rock, in his paper "SCARF: A Brain-Based Model for Collaborating With and Influencing Others." SCARF stands for the five key "domains" that influence our behaviour in social situations. These are:
Status – our relative importance to others.
Certainty – our ability to predict the future.
Autonomy – our sense of control over events.
Relatedness – how safe we feel with others.
Fairness – how fair we perceive the exchanges between people to be.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The client is at the heart of everything we do'

‘There are a lot of people at a junior level who can contribute to how things develop but aren't given a platform'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy

David Rock - The SCARF Model

Amy Edmonson - The Fearless Organisation

ABOUT THE HOST

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Mastering The Client Experience

How do we win the right kind of work from the right kinds of clients? This week on Work Winning Ways, Gary brings you an episode from a series of webinars about how you can master the client experience. Find out how you can win over clients, build and maintain relationships, the importance of leaders, and how to turn your clients into advocates for your services business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

It's five times easier to win work from existing clients than new ones. Your cost of sale is so much lower too with no need to spend on marketing.
A happy client who is well looked after becomes a powerful marketing tool, they become an advocate for us and word of mouth holds a lot of power.
It takes up to twelve positive experiences to make up for one negative one.
Communication and feedback on the communication is really one of the keys of building a good client relationship.
NPS = Net Promoter Score, essentially how likely your client is to recommend you for the services you have provided.
People always say “under promise, over deliver”, but what is more important, is doing what you say you will do. Over delivering is not always possible every time.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Client experience is the next competitive battleground'

‘Experience is as important as the product or service'

‘Leaders set the tone for all of us'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy

Amy Edmondson - The Fearless Organisation: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth

Amy Edmondson & Jean-François Harvey - Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership

ABOUT THE HOST

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas

https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub