The Exact Words That Calm a Hostile Client Every Time

How about a hostile client? Client says, "This is just unacceptable. I cannot tolerate these deadlines being missed all the time." And the provider might say something like, "Yeah, but we ran into delays and we had this problem, we had that problem." And of course the client just gets even angrier and angrier. The better way, and the way that will work to calm the situation down every single time, is to say, "You're really frustrated and angry. You were counting on us to get this done so that your project could move forward. And the fact that we failed you made you look bad and cost your company money. It's really, really frustrating." And watch what the client does. "Yeah, I am really frustrated." "Thanks, let's get this solved." So the key here is you're not agreeing, you're not fixing, you're not apologizing, you're not trying to problem solve anything. What you're doing is validating what they feel. When you validate what they feel, they calm down, they thank you, and they open up and become reachable again. That's the counterintuitive aspect of this that makes it so unique and so powerful.