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29 Jan 2021
Get Rid of Fear While Speaking With The Client
Written by Gauri Kalurkar
There is no denying the fact that communication plays an important role in all aspects of our life. Effective communication is vital in one’s professional life, be it with team members, co-workers, managers or clients. In the Software Services Industry, where outsourcing or offshoring is often the norm, client communication becomes all the more important. The best of the techies often find themselves riddled with fear when it comes to client communication. But as all problems, this too has a solution. Read on to find out how to improve client communication skills-
Overcome your fears to improve client communication-
1. Why are you fearful?
Why is it thought of communicating with the client giving you the blues?
The first step is to get to the bottom of your fear. Give a thought to the “Why” behind your fears of communicating with the client.
The most common reasons behind your fears could be-
- You lack good communication skills
- You don’t know how to deliver a bad news to the client
- You are worried that a lack of progress on your part may upset the client
- Something else
2. Forget your fear (not the reason)
Now that you know the reason behind your fear, it’s time to get rid of this fear.
The fear isn’t helping you and is further worsening your situation. What is important is the reason why you are fearing client communication.
The key here is to understand the reason and forget the fear.
3. Know The Intent
Generally, the intent behind communicating with the client is to give updates, ask relevant questions and to understand what the client is saying.
While communicating with the client, it is important to focus on the intent, which is- to be able to communicate. Simple! Rest of the things, including your worries, don’t matter.
So, if you intend to deliver bad news to the client, focus on how you can deliver this news effectively.
4. Polish Your Communication Skills
Working on your communication skills is essential to communicate well with your clients.
The goal is NOT to master the language and start speaking “Tharoorian” English, but to communicate regarding the project, ask questions, and get the answers.
Ultimately, you should be able to “Get the job done”.
5. What if I still have fear?
You may still find yourself worried before jumping on a client call. A practice that will help is “Keeping Checkpoints”. It means nothing else, but being able to effectively summarize your conversation with the client. While the meeting continues, whenever you are in doubt if “communication” is happening or not ..summarize what you said, the client’s responses and action items determined in the meeting. These are checkpoints.
These checkpoints are very important in such communications. Making a habit of keeping checkpoints while conversing with the client will improve your communication game gradually and help you structure the information exchanged during your call effectively.
To Conclude..
Getting cold feet before communicating with the client is a very common phenomena.
The key is to identify your fears regarding client communication, forget these fears and focus on the intent of your conversation. Polishing your communication skills will also help big time.
Following these practices will help you tackle these fears and have effective and productive talks with the client.
Now that you’ve learnt how to improve client communication, here are some handy tips to polish your project communication.