Beginnings: Setting your clients up for success

"People make claims about having 20 years' experience, but they really just have one year’s experience repeated 20 times." - Dylan William

I’m facilitating a brand new 3-month coaching program that’s focused specifically on helping client services professionals become more effective and authoritative communicators.

It’s got me focused on extremely specific parts of the client journey. For example, this past month I’ve been looking at beginnings:?the very start of brand new client relationships.

Arguably, this is when client relationships are set up for success — or failure.

I thought I’d get super practical this week and share with you the top four conversations I’ve been having across all my coaching clients.

Your challenge this week is:?What is one key aspect of our first sessions that we can be working on, so as to improve our engagement levels and relationship with our clients?

#1 Deliberately having a conversation with your clients about what the relationship should look like

I discussed this topic in?this letter ?a few weeks ago. TL;DR: Are you making a deliberate and conscious attempt to make it clear what a good client relationship looks like?

Here’s an example of the coaching questions I will use when setting the conditions for a new client relationship:

• What does our relationship need to look like in order to do our best work?
• What do you feel contributes to a healthy coach/client relationship?
• Have you ever hired a coach or consultant before? What went well/not so well? or What was helpful/unhelpful?

Action:?Decide when it makes sense for you to have this conversation with your client.

#2 Crafting world-class introductions for you and your team members

How often are you and your team handing off or transitioning your clients to different team members for different types of work?

What do those introductions look like? Are they facilitated in a way that creates a strong, trusting relationship? Does the client feel confident and committed to the work and this new person?

I take this seriously, and it shows.

Here’s an introduction I crafted for?Stefan, our sales coach, so I could effectively introduce him to a sales leader:

"Stefan is a tenured sales professional with a tonne of TAYA experience in the field. He has trained and coached literally 100s of sales professionals on the principles of TAYA and digital selling, across dozens of different types of organizations. He understands what truly motivates sales teams, and through his coaching your team will become experts in the TAYA methods, skills, and tactics so they can not only become more effective, but ultimately more successful sales professionals.”

Action:?Help your team to craft credible introductions and enable your whole team to introduce each other to clients.

#3 Eliminating?back-to-back meetings and building realistic days?

How well can you really perform in client meetings when all your meetings are back-to-back? Are you really doing your best work when you are jumping from meeting to meeting??

A big theme just this past few weeks with my coaches is building in time (buffers) before and after sessions to make sure they can be the best version of themselves in that session and have more time to prepare.

My rule for my schedule is this: no back-to-back meetings. Ever.

Just like my coaches admitted this week, I know I’m better if I have the time between sessions to take a beat, reset, and prepare well for what’s coming.

Action:?Build time into your schedule and don’t skip the prep. Encourage your team to do the same!

#4 Using your experience to get ahead of problems before they become problems

How many client sessions have you and your team facilitated? Dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands?!

Ask yourself:

• What are the most common problems and sources of friction?
• What causes our clients to fail?
• What does a truly great client relationship look like?
• Based on our experience, how much of this is predictable and, therefore, preventable?

My coaches have been putting a lot of work into?getting ahead of problems before they become problems.

Think about: communication problems, expectation setting, scoping challenges, role clarity, boundaries, and challenging behaviours and mindsets...anything and everything that causes friction.

Action:?Knowing what good looks like, set the expectations for success well ahead of time, so that these problems are less likely to occur.

Final thoughts

Every new client relationship is unique, and for every new client we work with, we should strive to make this a better and stronger relationship than that last — to make our sessions more valuable and better than ever before, and to do all we can to make this the best partnership our clients have ever had.?

It takes work, and developing and improving in these four areas will make a dramatic difference in how your clients experience you and your team.

Do we have 20 years' experience, or one year of experience repeated 20 times?

What does your first action look like?

DFTBA!

Chris.

PS.?If you'd like a weekly letter and more coaching resources/tips from me, go ahead and?subscribe to my weekly letter ?that lands in your inbox every Thursday.

#clientexperience #clientrelationship #communication