How To Disagree With Your Client

If you have worked with any client ever, then you know they often have very clear ideas of what they want. But what they want isn't always what's best for them. Now, this can be a challenge for any key account manager, but it also presents an opportunity. Disagreements can be a catalyst to improve collaboration and produce outstanding work. So let's talk about how to disagree with your client. Sit tight, I'll be right back. Hello and welcome to the CamClub podcast, a show that's on a mission to help busy key account managers get results. I'm your host, Warwick Brown, and together we'll explore tips, tricks and trends to help you grow client revenue, crush that customer retention, and build a successful career in key account management. As always, you can find links to everything linkable, including the show notes, @tkcpodcast.com 023 so let's talk about disagreeing with your clients. Now, our job as key account managers is to tell our clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Sometimes that leads to friction, but you know what? That's how pearls are made. That little tiny grain of sand that irritates the oyster, and from that, something beautiful is born. Now remember, you are the expert. You know your industry, you know your products, and you know your solutions. And you know how your client can get the most out of them to get closer to their goals. Your client is not the expert. Certainly at that point where your solutions and their industry and their business intersect, you are. Now, maybe your client is ignorant, maybe they're misinformed, maybe they just didn't listen, or maybe you haven't explained yourself clearly, or you don't have all the information you need to convince them of your point of view. Or maybe they're just plain wrong and you need to set them straight. My advice is to not put off the hard conversations. They're not going to get any easier and it's just going to lead to communication breakdowns. It will harm your ability to collaborate. Decisions will get delayed and you could miss out on some big opportunities. Both you and your client actually could miss out on some big opportunities. Now, in this context, I'm not talking about full blown conflict resolution where it's completely escalated. This is more about disagreements of strategy, disagreements about what decisions to make, or disagreements about how they've interpreted information and made choices based on that, that sort of thing. Okay? Now any disagreement with a client will involve a little bit of delicate diplomacy to get your point across because we don't want this to become an argument. So Whenever you find yourself in a tense situation or whenever you find yourself disagreeing with your client, take a moment and ask yourself the following questions. What do you want the outcome of this conversation to be? Where do you think it should head? What point do you want to get your client to? And what do you want from the relationship moving forward? I guess it's really just putting the context into place and thinking, is this the hill I'm going to die on? Is this really worth pursuing? Is this a conversation I need to have? Can I have it in the moment? Or is it going to be, you know, require more thought and planning and preparation, and I need to have a separate meeting about this and give my client and myself time to prepare rather than react in the moment. The main reason disagreements become heated or become unproductive is because you don't actually discuss the issue. You know, then it just becomes finger pointing or it becomes the silent treatment and everyone becomes defensive or even passive aggressive. So state up front your concerns, your point of view, your perspective. Reveal what it is you're trying to get to the bottom of. What is the root of the problem you're having? What is the root of the disagreement? What are the gaps you're hoping to fill to get clarity? Keep the focus on the main thing because you want to make sure that you're talking about that and not going off piece, getting distracted, and you want to make sure that both of you are clear and that there's no confusion. So here are some tips. If you come across a situation where you disagree with your client, give your client the benefit of the doubt. Assume that they have good intentions. Maybe they didn't communicate clearly, maybe they were abrupt, maybe they didn't express themselves succinctly. But assume they're not trying to be obstructive. They're not trying to be argumentative, that they are actually trying to get the same thing you are, which is the best for everybody. Be collaborative and focus on solutions, not finger pointing. Right, except that there's multiple alternatives and it is not your way or the highway. You can find some middle ground. Be prepared to receive feedback. It may not be good, or it may be in conflict with what you're trying to achieve. But ignore your impulse to react. Just listen and acknowledge what you've heard. Borrow from improv, use that. You've probably heard of it. That yes. And it's not agreeing, it's just acknowledging receipt of the information that your client is sharing. Avoid phrases like no, but because that kind of is a negative attitude, it negates the information, it maybe belittles their point of view. You want positive vibes only and there is a fantastic book called the Improv Mindset by Bruce Montgomery and Gail Montgomery. All about how to use that yes and mindset and approach to help you succeed in your client and business relationships. I'll pop a link in the show notes as well as to their LinkedIn profiles because they've got a really fun LinkedIn feed and and they share regular tips on implementing this improv mindset in your day to day life. No generalizations, right? Everyone says or everything's at risk or nobody does that. That type of stuff that has no weight. It's not evidence based, it's useless and it's so generic it's got little impact. Speak for yourself. It's easy to say, well we all agree when there's only two of you in the room. If there's only two of you in the room, then you're going to be speaking from your own perspective, not from other people that might be absent, right? It's your opinions. Best thing to do though in these situations is to rely on systems, on processes and objective metrics that can take the emotion out of the whole conversation. Use evidence to justify your position, not generalizations or deferring to people that aren't in the room. Now don't disagree on the spot. Better certainly if it's a complex issue or it's going to determine a course of action or a strategy. Better that you schedule a time to discuss the issue. Be clear on what you want to say. Give your client notice too and build an agenda around that problem solving, that brainstorming. I've got a few more tips for you, but first let me talk about our sponsor me, the GAM Club. The GAM Club is the world's most amazing community of key account managers. Everything that you need to have a successful career in key account management is there. You have tools, you have training, you have guides, you have workshops. A connected community of key account managers. All there to help you succeed. And you have me. I do open office hours every Tuesday, Wednesday and you can get some one to one coaching with me as well. So what's not to love? If you'd like to learn more about the Cam Club, visit AMTIP Co CamClub. Alright, onto some final tips on how to disagree productively with your client. Consider that you might be wrong. You know it's possible. I wouldn't say likely, but certainly possible. And if you are, say sorry. Don't dig your heels in just because you want to be right. Focus on preserving the relationship. This is just one moment in time, one conversation. Don't let things get heated to the point of, you know, potentially disrupting or damaging your relationship. Right? You want to let your client know that the relationship is the priority. Everything else you can work through. Beware of interrupting people and talking over people. I'm so guilty of this, you know, like I'm so passionate about my point of view and my perspective or I think I know the answer and I just can't wait to talk over people to tell them. Give your client the time to answer completely before speaking so you really do hear what they say and you are not speaking over them. Listen actively important and recap what you've heard so there's no misunderstandings, no automatons, threats, yelling. That of course goes without saying. We're talking about disagreements, not full out conflict. That's what we're trying to avoid. Don't pretend if you don't know the answer. I've tried that bravado where I have, you know, faked it till I make it. And there's a time and a place for that, but certainly not with facts and information. If you don't know something, better off to say, listen, I'm not sure about that. Yes, you've raised a good point. Let me go back and investigate and I'll come back to you on that. And when you wrap things up, when you've concluded the conversation, end with a next step or an action. What should happen as the result of this conversation? You had a disagreement. It is going to be about something. What's going to change or what is the next step that's going to take place now that you've resolved this disagreement? Now, finally, I just want to say to you, trust that you have everything you need to deal with the situation and to create a successful outcome. Don't doubt yourself. You got this. You know your stuff. You've got your client's best interests at heart, you've got the best of intentions and all you want to do is resolve this little disagreement that is just a blip in the long life cycle of the partnership between you and your client. All right, heroes, I've been your host, Warwick Brown. Check out the show notes@tkcpodcast.com 023 and I'll see you in the next episode real soon. Bye for now.