How great would it be if you could walk into every new client meeting knowing exactly how they want to be spoken to, what frustrates them but also what excites them, and ultimately know how to impress them with minimal amount of effort?
It would certainly make the whole client liaison and sales process a lot easier, right?
Meeting a new client for the first time, or even an existing one can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience at the best of times, but even more so when you’re going in ‘unarmed’ (so to speak).
Why not make it easier on yourself or your team and get the skills required to master effective communication with clients?
To get the ball rolling, we’ve shared 3 simple ways you can impress any client below which we hope you will find useful.
- Determine how they want to be spoken to
If you want to be able to impress clients and influence them in a way in which they understand, appreciate and respond positively to, you simply need to understand the unique way they want to be treated (because everyone is a little different).
A really easy way to do that is to determine what their preferred communication style is out of the four styles (Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue – find out more about the 4 styles here).
And you can figure that out by:
- The way they are dressed (immaculately or scruffy, comfortably or practically),
- What their environment looks like (is their desk tidy or messy, personalised or plain?)
- The way they talk (do they give short, sharp answers or long, detailed descriptions, do they use kind words or are they quite un-emotive?)
When you’re skilled in the art of effective communication, all of the descriptions above are simple clues you can use to determine how someone wants to be spoken to in order to get along with them better, sell an idea to them and ultimately impress the socks off them!
So once you’ve determined how they want to be spoken to, then what can you do?
- Speak ‘their language’
If you can understand your clients’ needs and how they want to be spoken to, you can then slightly adjust the way you speak to them in order to be better understood.
You see a common mistake we all make is thinking that we should ‘treat others the way we want to be treated’ – wrong!
This can be as ineffective as speaking English to someone who only speaks French.
In order to get along with someone, impress them and have them understand you clearly, you must treat them the way THEY want to be treated (because 3 out of 4 times it will be in a different way to you).
Whether they are future focused and like to talk a lot, or if they need a lot of visual detail from you in order to understand you. Perhaps they just want you to get straight to the point, or maybe they need time to feel comfortable about what you’re saying to them…
So how can you speak their language?
If their preferred communication style is:
Purple – give them the big picture first (don’t bother with boring details).
Yellow – give them all of the details so that they can create a picture in their mind of what you’re talking about.
Red – get straight to the point (list the facts like bullet points).
Blue – show empathy in your words and actions and let them get a feel for what you’re saying.
As you can see each of these ‘languages’ are quite different, right?
That’s why it’s so important to have these skills in order to get the most value from your client meetings.
It can be just as simple to adjust your words slightly to match their style in any of the 4 colours, as long as you know the right techniques and tools to use (this is where we can help).
So now you’ve determined how they want to be spoken to, and you’ve spoken to them in ‘their language’, how can you put the icing on the cake when it comes to impressing your clients?
- Focus on their needs
Make it about THEM – not YOU.
I appreciate that you might have all this important information you want to share with your client (you want to tell them all about this product you’re selling, or all the things you can do for them) but you must first ask yourself the question – is it what they want to hear?
Because you need to remember that we are all quite selfish creatures us human beings. Our first reaction to almost any situation (particularly meetings) is – what’s in it for me?
Yes you’re there to try to impress them with what you can do, but ultimately they’re focused on their own issues, their own priorities, and no one wants to be ‘sold’ something they don’t think they need or want.
So in order to impress any client, find out what THEIR needs are first!
What are their goals? Their desired outcomes? What does success look like for them?
And most importantly – what are their needs, the problems they are facing, what’s stopping them from getting to where they want to be?
Once you get clear on these points, then and only then should you even begin to talk about what you can offer (if what you can offer is going to genuinely help them in some way).
It’s not rocket science, but it works.
If you found these tips useful and would like to know more about how to impress your clients, send us a message, we’d love to hear from you!
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