Having Difficult Conversations with Clients
In Colorado, where I live, we sometimes experience a weather phenomenon called virga. It is precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before it hits the ground. It’s quite a sight. Infopreneurs often encounter the business equivalent of virga when we see ahead of us a stormy and contentious conversation with a client. But we can help evaporate it before we get drenched.
From my conversations with fellow AIIPers, I have concluded that these difficult conversations fall into a few broad categories — negotiating the scope and budget of a project, managing expectations and unhappy clients, and managing scope creep. I’ve had some version of each of these conversations myself, and here are the approaches I have seen get the best results.
Negotiating the scope and budget
My fundamental pricing principle is that clients should assume I price myself according to my value. I use the client needs assessment conversation to find out not only what my client needs but what my client will be doing with my deliverable and what is at stake. And, at the end of the conversation, I always ask directly, “so, roughly what’s your budget for this project?” In my experience, 90% of clients will tell me what they expect to spend, and the other 10% honestly have no idea what the project will entail. For the former, I take that information and design a deliverable that comes in at that budget and offers the most value I can provide. For the latter, I usually respond, “just rough numbers, are you expecting to spend $100, $1,000 or $10,000?” If I get pushback on the proposed scope or budget, I only reduce the budget if I can also reduce the scope. I have found that clients who tell me I am too expensive don’t turn out to be happy repeat clients.
Managing expectations and unhappy clients
As any therapist will tell you, difficult conversations are better done sooner rather than later, after resentments and misunderstandings pile up. This applies to client relationships as well. It is far easier to tell a client at the start of a project that “I may not be able to do X but I can at least do Y” than it is to apologize at the end for not providing what the client was expecting. Yes, the old under-promise and over-deliver adage still applies. If an engagement ever goes completely off the rails — and we have all had one of those over the years — the approach I have found most productive is to say “I am so sorry that this isn’t what you were expecting. What can I do to make it right?” Believe it or not, the response I get always involves only a modest amount of additional work, which results in a client who is still happy with my work.
Managing scope creep
I learned about scope creep when I renovated my house. Every time I asked for one more little thing, the contractor politely answered “sure, I’ll write up a quick addendum to the contract.” He was a great model of how to leave no room in the discussion for any assumption that he would do the work for free. The same approach works for infopreneurs’ clients; I usually say something like “Yes, I’d be happy to. I’ll write up a quick scope of work and budget for that and get it to you tomorrow.”
What other types of difficult conversations have you had? Let’s continue the conversation on AIIP-L (and if you’re not yet a member, join us!).
—– Mary Ellen Bates has been an infopreneur since 1991. In addition to her business analysis services, she offers free strategic coaching to new and long-time infopreneurs. See more at Reluctant-Entrepreneur.com or contact her at mbates@batesinfo.com or +1 303 772 7095.
