A presentation on using communication a tool to impress clients and increase business

1. How to ‘Enchant’ Clients?
Ahsan Saleem
Project Manager-Confiz Solutions
www.confiz.com
September-2012

2. Base Rules
 The word ‘Enchant’
 First presentation of Enchant series
 Expected audience is anyone at Confiz
 10,000 PKR cash reward if you prove me wrong

3. Who’s a Client
 Internal client
 Different departments
 Different teams
 External client
 Buys our services or products
 Companies or individuals
 Sits thousands of miles away in a different time zone
 Depends on us for own profit

4. Why Enchant Clients
 Revenue continuity
 Business growth
 Better market reputation
 Opportunity to learn
 New technologies
 New business domain
 Communication skills
 Personal/team achievement

5. What Client Wants
 Value for money
 Quality and quantity of services
 A reliable business relationship
 And also a good team experience…
 Friendly and trustful interaction
 Exchange of information
 Personal connection
(culture, language, life happenings etc.)

6. Our Enchanting Toolset
 Solid engineered code
 Business, UI and UX skills
 Organizational support
 Strategic Communication

7. Enchanting Scenarios
Time of Uncertainty
Time to be Clever Time of Good News
Time of Angry Client Time of Bad News

8. Time of Uncertainty
 New client or client team
 Beginning of project
 Unknown technology domain
 Lack of information about business

9. Case-Uncertainty
Client: I have given you little or no requirements. We don’t know
about this technology. How long will you take to finish this job?
Possible Responses:
a) One week
b) One month
c) One year

10. Case-Uncertainty
Correct Response:
Let me ask you some questions, develop better understanding,
explore technology a bit and come back to you…
Means:
a) Not a blind shot
b) Interested in learning
c) Playing smart

11. Time of Good News
 Project going quite well
 Sprints meeting targets
 Engineering code about bug free
 Project planning up to mark
 Hardees has dropped prices by 50%!!!

12. Case-Good News
Client: How are thing going?
Possible Responses:
a) Fine
b) Awesome
c) We are kicking Software butt!

13. Case-Good News
Correct Response:
We are on track in terms of time. Engineers are efficiently engaged.
Regular test cycles are producing less bugs. Scheduled DB backups are
keeping data safe. You will have an updated release in 2 weeks…
Tells client:
1- We are on schedule and making progress
2- Right number of resources are engaged (cost efficiency)
3- Quality is not comprised
4- Using’ good time’ to market our skills and experience

14. Time of Bad News
 Too many bugs in builds
 Too much ambiguity in business rules
 Technology is not mature enough
 Builds are delayed
 Server or DB crash/issue

15. Case-Bad News
Client: How are things?
Possible Responses:
a) ‘Silence’
b) You are doomed!
c) Nothing is working and we have no idea why

16. Case-Bad News
Correct Response:
Over all things are fine. We have hit a small issue caused by lack of
understanding of billing module. I have prepared a list of questions so
kindly assist me fixing the problem… – OR
The technology stack we chose might not be best choice because of
these unforeseen reasons. Here are links where a few other teams are
discussing the same issues. I have analyzed the impact on time and
here is a cost estimation of changes. Also, following will be the benefit
of shifting to this new technology in longer term. Here are some more
links … - OR

17. Case-Bad News
Correct Response (continued):
We have lost x amount of data in a crash last night, happened because
of this xyz reason. We have recovered most of the records and still
trying to fix the issue. We have also taken following measures to avoid
this issue in future…
Means:
1- We understand client is not a fool
2- We offer a solution while giving the bad news
3- We learnt a lesson to avoid a similar case again

18. Case-Bad News
 What’s the catch in giving bad news?
 Build a consent in team and with management first
 Controlled amount of information (hell breaking loose is
bad)
 Accept a mistake when made one (but smartly)
 Discuss with client as a teammate not an outsider
 Do not point fingers on anyone – internal or client or his
team

19. Time of Angry Client
 We messed something up
 Client frustrated by a personal issue
 A not so nice email from client
 Aggressive conference call with client

20. Case-Angry Client
Client: I am very disappointed in you. Not only you are
incompetent but also stealing me of my money. I want to shut
the project down and make sure you loose your job
Possible Responses:
a) Go to hell!
b) How dare you!
c) I am so scared, please forgive me!

21. Case-Angry Client
Correct Response:
I understand this concern is very important to you and I assure
you whatever happened is a misunderstanding. If there is an
issue, I want to resolve it with you as a team. Your project is very
important to us and I really like working with you in a healthy
and respectful team environment…

22. Case-Angry Client
Means:
1- Showed patience against aggression
2- Create margin of correctness
3- Appreciated his project and experience of working with him
4- Suggested him to keep a healthy tone

23. Tips-Angry Clients
 Client sits thousands of miles and many time zones away
 Comes from different cultural background
 Different work ethics
 Is a human so give him margin
 Its not personal, its business

24. Case-Time to be Clever
Client: Can you please do me a favor and deliver
this task of 3 days in 1 day?
Your Response:
a) Are you crazy?
b) Even Superman can’t do this
c) NO!

25. Case-Time to be Clever
Correct Response: While we want to meet your expectations, it
is not possible to deliver this specific task in 1 day without
compromising quality and security of system. Here is a break of
sub-tasks that will take 3 days in total
Means:
a) A straight ‘NO’ is quite rude
b) Provide reasons while saying ‘no’ nicely

26. Skype-General Tips
 English speaking is a barrier – remove by practice
 Prepare for calls – takes notes in advance
 Introduce yourself before speaking and say greetings
 Do not speak fast and in long sentences
 There is no such thing as bad questions
 Professional Skype aliases and profile pic
 ‘Shak33l’ is not ‘Shakeel’
 ‘CoolBoy86’ is not a cool alias
 Make sure voice quality is good

27. Email-General Tips
 Review before sending
 Fill ‘To’ and ‘CC’ after review
 Avoid too many adjectives
 Try to be complete and holistic – do not assume awareness
from reader
 Avoid basic typos and grammar
 Bullets and not long paragraphs

28. Chat-General Tips
 Avoid shorthand
 ‘F9’ is not ‘fine’
 ‘U’ is not ‘You’
 What the heck is ‘ROFL’?
 Do not break sentences
I am <send>
working <send>
on build <send>
.. Is not good!
 Again think, then write, then review, then send

29. Thank You!