Demanding Clients

How did you feel the last time you had a contentious encounter with one of your very demanding clients? Perhaps you felt that the client was overly demanding and did not deserve the extra attention they were expecting. Maybe they did and perhaps the were in fact being too demanding. Either way, you will find yourself at a point of decision. How you view the matter will largely determine how you handle the resolution.

Consider what would happen if you look at these situations as opportunities rather than distractions. You may learn a great deal about yourself, your product or service and what may need to happen in order to make improvements. The demanding client expects you to perform at a certain level and in most situations, these clients are simply reminding you that they are not getting what they are paying for. Your responsibility is to handle the matter quickly and either demonstrate that you are delivering what was purchased or commit to this client that you will get the matter satisfactorily resolved, and do so as quickly as possible. When surveyed as to why clients made a change in the people they bought from, the number one reason was poor service. When a demanding client puts forth their demands, you are being given the opportunity to save the business you are getting from them. Clients will get what they want, and what they demand, within reason. The only question is where will they get it.

When a client makes demands, you must make additional efforts and get moving with the attitude that the demanding client has just given you the opportunity to save the hard-earned relationship and make improvements, perhaps to the benefit of all clients. These situations will typically serve to strengthen the relationship. Welcome and value THE DEMANDING CLIENT.

What you are.

You are what you tolerate. Tolerating that which is within your control can be destructive. Far too often we get less than we can because we tolerate that which does not meet our current or future demands. The desire that drives us may not drive others and making progress, when it is tied to others getting their stuff done to satisfactorily blend with our progress, can be fatiguing. Therefore we accept less from ourselves and from others.

The reality is that we need not put any more effort into making sure the right people, including ourselves, perform at a high enough level so as to accomplish the team-objective, than we put into dragging someone along. When we tolerate behavior and performance that does not meet the standards, independent of the source, we compromise and in doing so we define ourselves. Or, perhaps, we are allowing others to define us by our tolerance of their lack of achievement. When you are doing all you can, then perhaps other people are indeed holding you back. However, make sure to closely and critically examine your efforts because initially, and most often you will discover that there is something you can do more of, or improve upon what you are currently doing. Take caution before you start looking at others, when a closer examination of what you are doing is what is really needed. Start by looking at what you tolerate from yourself.

How does that fit?

There are two really big mistakes you can, and will, make with clients if you do not do the process correctly.

There is a "tried & true" process that consist of:

1. Identifying prospects

2. Asking the Right Questions

3. Constructing a professional and customized proposal

4. Making a professional presentation

5. Following up

Each of these steps is necessary in order for you to do what is best for your new and current customers. So, do not take any shortcuts! Once you have the information you need, you should have a very good idea on how much your clients should invest in your products or services.

The two biggest mistakes that a sales person will often make are:

1. They sell the client more than the information indicates they should.

2. They sell the client less than the information indicates they should.

While either of these is wrong, the biggest mistake is selling the client less than they should. When this happens the program you are selling never has a fair opportunity to succeed. You have invested considerable time and effort learning what the client needs and just when you get to the critical decision process, you acquiesce and allow the client to do the wrong thing by under-committing. You need to revisit with the client why you are making the fact-based recommendation and ask the client why they feel the recommendation does not meet their needs. Do not just take the money and run. Rather take the opportunity to build a greater level of trust by engaging in the discussion as to how and why you are recommending this plan.

Make sure your recommendation fits. If it is too large it will be awkward and difficult to manage. If it is too small it is uncomfortable and restricts movement and growth.

What about you

You are what ever you think you are. Many people will see this as an over simplification of reality regarding self-worth, but it is not. You either think of yourself as someone special or you do not. The self-worth is in the "thinking" and then the "doing."

Considering yourself worthy does not require you to have accomplished something monumental. What it does require is that you take action and do something and therefore establish a pattern of accomplishment that you can build on. Even if you fail (temporarily) you have accomplished something. You learned what not to do. Thomas Edison spend years inventing the incandescent light bulb. He tried over 5,000 versions of the device until one day he got it right. Edison would never have achieved success if after one of his failed attempts, he considered himself unworthy and simply quit. He may have struggled, as we all do, but he persevered, by taking action and realizing that he would eventually get it right. His victory required him to constantly consider his value as a person. There is simply no other way he would have been successful. If he had told himself that he was not worthy, he would not have made it.

You are unlikely to get to where you what to go unless you look at yourself and know that you are indeed unique. You can be successful if you don't get down on yourself. Self doubt is a destructive force. When you face some difficult situation, remember that it is only temporary and that you have the opportunity, at this very moment, to think positive thoughts about yourself and move on!

The Learning Process

Robert Trent Jones was, without question, one of the greatest players of golf ever to play the game. Robert "Bobby" Jones is the only golfer to win the Grand Slam. The Grand Slam is when a golfer wins all major championships in the same year. Jones accomplished this unmatched feat in 1930.

Jones was quoted as saying; " I never learned anything from winning a golf tournament." How incredible is that. The only person in the history of professional golf to win all major championships in the same year stated that winning taught him nothing!

What he meant of course, is that losing is a teachable and defining moment. The pain of failure is a great motivator, to the right person. Whenever we do not accomplish that which we set out to do, we may consider ourselves to be failures. Instead of taking the position that you have irrevocably failed, consider yourself as the student and that the painful experience has taught you that you will need to do things either, better or differently, or both, in order to achieve your objective. Don't consider it a complete loss, consider it an opportunity to grow in your abilities as you adapt and improve.

Learning is indeed a process and that process is going to be as productive or as unproductive as you make it. Failures are great teachers. 

Get up and Get Going

Many times you have likely found yourself contemplating as to whether or not you can accomplish a certain task or achieve a level of success that has heretofore alluded you. This is a very common reality that occurs when we take too much time contemplating and not enough time doing.

Often all we need to do is get up and get going. The first step is the most important step you will ever take because unless you take the first step, logically, you will never get to the second step. In my endeavors, I have often found myself in the situation of not doing because I am thinking about what I need to do. When what I really need to do is get going, because the more I think about something, the bigger the task becomes and grows, in my mind, into something so big that I begin to wonder if I can or should make the effort. Self doubt enters the process and that can be deadly.

The fact of the matter is, that if we really knew, before we started, the full extent of the considerable effort and time that was ultimately going to be required, we might opt to not engage at all. Some of the greatest accomplishments you will make during your career are going to require you to move in different directions after you get started and be willing to modify what you believe to be successful. You are going to learn what to do and as important, what not to do. But none of this happens unless you get going. You must get moving and once you do, you will be so busy headed in the direction of success that you will not have time to think about whether you can, you will be consumed with, you will! Get up and get going!

Own The Issue

It is your job, your reputation and your personal brand to protect so, "own the issue."

Building relationships is grounded in trust. Trusting you means you are going to look out for your client's best interest. You represent your client. Your clients do and should expect you to address, sooner rather than later, any issues they are facing with your products or services. If there is an issue with quality, delivery, performance, billing, accounts payable or anything that is a part of your product or service, it is not your client's issue it is YOUR ISSUE.

Roger Staubach, the hall of fame quarterback for The Dallas Cowboys, launched a commercial real estate business after his professional football career and turned the industry on its head, when he introduced his business model which was simply; representing the tenant and not the landlord. He and his associates entered every negotiation with the tenant's best interest in mind. They did not represent landlords! The business model was a huge hit because the tenants knew they could trust his company. He owned the issues as far as the tenants were concerned.

You are responsible for taking care of your client. To the client you are. "the business" so don't pass the blame on to the department back at the office that is responsible for the function that is not meeting client expectations. Your client's have enough to deal with without wondering if issues with your company are going to get resolved fairly and quickly. Your clients are doing business with you, not your company and they expect you to take care of them. People do business with people, so make sure that after you gain their trust, you jealously guard that trust by OWNING THE ISSUE.