January 25, 2019

Deer in the headlights

Sent by Jonathan Stark on January 27th, 2019

Has a client ever put you “on the spot” in a meeting?

It usually goes like this: They ask you a tough question (usually an estimate or prediction of some kind), you don’t have a good answer, your mind goes blank, you start to panic, and then you say something you regret.

When you don’t have a confident answer to a client question, just say so. Then, immediately follow up with what an action that you can take to gain the confidence necessary to deliver a solid answer.

Here’s a template that you can use in almost any situation where you are asked to make a prediction or estimate on the spot. You say:

“That’s unclear at this point but here’s what I propose... I’ll $action, and give you a solid answer by $date. Will that be acceptable?”

Here are some possible values for $action:

“crunch the numbers back at my office”
“talk to my business partner about our capacity in the near term”
“speak with your CEO about the desired outcome for this engagement”
“interview your three largest clients about their experience using your customer portal”

It works. Memorize it right now. Say it out loud until it’s second nature.

Yours,

—J