The Do’s and Don’ts of Client Management (from a Head of Product Design)

[0:00]Whether you're a freelancer, running a small business, or working in-house at a company, one of the most critical soft skills to further your career is understanding how to manage client relationships effectively! However, this is also a skill that most people have to learn the hard way on the job through years and years of experience, sometimes mentoring. So in this video you're going to learn some tips and tricks that will immediately improve the relationships you have with your clients or stakeholders. Hi, my name is Tim, I'm Head of Product Design at AJ&Smart and for the past 12 years I've worked with hundreds of companies from small startups to large enterprises, working on sometimes very complex, difficult projects involving dozens of people. So these are things that I learned the hard way through years of trial and error, making mistakes, and I want to share my experience with you so that you can avoid some of the mistakes that I have made early in my career. So let's get started. Why is client or stakeholder management so important for your career? First of all, because your technical skills or your abilities on the job don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in relationship with other people. If you're running your own business, it's your own clients, but if you're working in-house at a company, it's company stakeholders, it's your colleagues, it's management. And it really doesn't matter what you do, whether you're a designer or an engineer or a developer or a workshop facilitator. Your technical expertise can get you the job, but what makes you thrive in it and actually develop a career is a mix of technical and people skills. Even if the work that you do is objectively great, you're making it harder on yourself to develop a career if people have a hard time working with you, relating with you, and if they have the feeling that you don't understand their needs. So here are the most common things that can go wrong with client management and how to fix them. The first one is failure to communicate, and this is a really big one. It's something that a lot of people are completely unaware of. It's one of the most common mistakes I see people make. A lot of highly skilled people are completely unaware of how bad they are at communicating and it's really holding them back. Even if you're doing the best work of your life, a failure or a lack of communication can cause huge conflicts and misunderstanding, and it can in extreme cases even mean that you're losing clients or missing out on career chances. So here are the most common mistakes that people do when communicating with clients. The first one is leaving your client in the dark on what's going on. So this is something that very often happens to more junior people, but actually it can happen to anyone that you're so laser focused on getting a task done and kind of like utilizing the skills that you have, that you're kind of like neglecting looping people into the process. You're asking for feedback far too late or not at all. So at the end, maybe you're just running out of time, there is no time to change anything. What you have created might be really good, but maybe you just worked in the wrong direction, or maybe the situation has changed and some new information that would have been really valuable for you came to light and you just completely missed out on it. Or maybe you're encountering an issue that you can't solve, or maybe you're hitting a roadblock, maybe you got sick, maybe that affects the timeline. And now maybe you're feeling a little bit hesitant to reach out to your client or the people you're working for and just being very transparent on what's going on and your concerns. And maybe that's based on kind of like the fear of looking bad in front of your clients, but by not doing that, you're actually making it way, way worse because you're kind of like causing problems for yourself and your client further down the road. uh when for example, things can't be changed anymore at the end, uh you're making your own life also more stressful because now you're kind of like trying to cover for things you might not know instead of like just raising these things as early as possible. So what you should do is maintaining regular updates with your clients or stakeholders. This doesn't mean that you have to constantly send them updates on every little thing that you're doing. One good habit to to build is uh just agreeing on a specific frequency on uh when you're updating people. Maybe it's like twice a week, or maybe it's at the end of each day, just giving them a very quick update on what's going on, if you have had any issues that you encountered. So maintaining a consistent flow of communications should really be a part of your workflow. It's really a part of your job beyond just your technical expertise. This also allows them to give you feedback early, uh reducing your own stress so that you don't have to rush to fix things at the last minute. Another mistake that many people make is hiding behind technical jargon. So using language that maybe is common common knowledge amongst your peers, but the client isn't familiar with it and they can't really make any decisions or uh give you any kind of like input on what the best approach is because they're just not familiar with these things. So you're the expert, you should really try to help the clients understand uh what they need, uh you should really try to feel out kind of like their needs, their goals and communicate with them in just plain language that they can understand. So maybe this is something that you do because you feel the need to show off that you're the expert in this domain and they made the right choice in hiring you, but it's also making it really hard for them to communicate with you because maybe they just have a very specific need and they're asking for these things, but then you kind of like give them a response that they just can't really understand or maybe they have to make a decision that they don't understand. And as an expert, it should be your goal to kind of like guide them through these decisions in a way that they can actually make an informed decision in in plain language that also will make them feel more reassured in working with you. Another thing to strive for is being really clear, concise and organized with how you communicate with your clients because nobody wants to get 500 Slack messages with like one liners or like an incomprehensible email. Because now your clients might feel that it's actually work to communicate with you and kind of like deciphering what you what you actually want. So generally, people don't like uncertainty and even if you're doing great work and at the end everybody's happy, your clients might just not enjoy the process of working with you and maybe they would actually rather work with somebody not as talented or not as skilled in the future because they feel more reassured working with them that they're not left in the dark on what's going on. So fixing this failure to communicate is one of the most critical things you can do to improve your client relationships. The next critical thing that many people don't do or don't do right is expectation management. So this just means that there is a shared understanding between you and your client on what it is that you're going to do for them, what you're going to deliver in the end, what the time frame is, and also what it all costs. Needless to say, if you don't do this right or if you don't do this at all, this is a huge potential source of conflict. It will annoy your clients because they feel like they're not getting what they thought they would be getting. This is also a potential source for frustration for yourself because you feel like, oh, the client has no clue, they have unrealistic expectations on what I can do and the amount of time I have. But since you're the expert, it's actually your responsibility to tell them specifically what is actually realistic, what you can do in the time or the budget that they that they have. And if you fail to do that, it's you really shouldn't blame the client for this because this is something that maybe they just had no awareness of. Again, this is something that you should proactively do whatever project you're working on, whatever client you're working with. So if you do this the right way, it can make complex or challenging projects actually really enjoyable to work on. And here a couple of things that you should be aware of. So one of the most important things here is that when you start a project, you're actually talking to the client and specifically outlining the things that you agree to do and also the things that you don't agree to do. Get it in writing, get it in a document, have the client sign this in some way because this is almost like a life insurance for you. If some conflict arises, if there is some mismatch of expectations and the client comes to you and says, well, uh, where is that thing that I wanted you to do? you would do for us. You can actually go back to that document and say, look, here is everything that we agreed I would do for you. So one mistake that many people make is actually agreeing too quickly to requests from the client without checking first if this is something that's within the scope that was initially agreed on, or if this is even something that's realistic. So maybe you're kind of like hesitant to push on the break and you want to seem eager and helpful, so you're agreeing, maybe even just verbally, to do a lot of things, and then you go back and then you realize, oh, actually, this is a lot more difficult or more complex than I than I thought it would be. And then you're in this bad situation where either you have to go back and tell them, well, I agreed to do this, but now that I checked, I actually I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry, or you feel pressure to do something that maybe is not even within budget, so you're basically not getting paid for this extra work. Or maybe you already know that, um, this is going to be like the budget is far too low for this, but maybe I'll just get started and then maybe they will find more money for this. You should always assume that this is not going to be the case, so you need to be really professional, really upfront, if you see any red flags about what you can do. And again, there's also no shame in saying like, hey, I'm not the right person for this, maybe you know someone who can do the work for them. I think they will really appreciate if you're just being honest with them rather than betting on you being able to deliver this piece of work and then ending up being disappointed. This can be a really big hit on your personal and professional reputation, so it is really something you should avoid. Be really realistic about what you can do, also in terms of like the timelines when you are available, in terms of budget, because these are things that the client wants to know about and you owe the transparency and honesty to them. So one helpful thing that you can do to make this process a little easier on yourself is basically just templating your product offering or your service offering. So if they are really clear on uh what they're getting when they hire you, you're saving a lot of time if you have, for example, documents that show specifically what you can do, that could be something like a case study, uh maybe it's your portfolio, things like that, and resist the temptation, especially if you're a small business owner or a freelancer even, to offer too many different things that are too difficult to understand. Because this kind of like catch all approach will also make it really difficult for them to understand, like, okay, what is what is that person actually really good at? Why should I hire them? Maybe there are a couple of things that you can do in addition, um but it's usually helpful if you're just really focused and clear in what you're offering and it all it's also making a lot easier for yourself selling these services when you have all of that stuff documented somewhere and templated and then creating something like a scope of work also becomes really, really easy because you're essentially selling the same stuff over and over and over again just with like slightly different like variables. Especially when you are a freelancer or a small business owner, you are saving a lot of time and effort if you just have that stuff templated. It's really going to give you a huge advantage over people that don't have that stuff ready. The next thing is trust and relationship building, and this is extremely important because it takes time to build trust. It's also very easy to lose trust if you're not careful. But I think actually going into a new relationship, there are some things that you can do to immediately gain trust that would otherwise take a long, long, long time to build. So one thing that also a lot of technical experts neglect is considering the human aspect of it. Because usually people don't just hire you to do like a technical job, they're actually also looking for a trusted advisor, someone who can help them make sense of something they are not as knowledgeable about as you yourself are. So this is really related to building uh trust and relationships and really making them feel like this is a person I can trust. I might not 100% understand what they do and how they're doing it, but I just know that if there is anything that doesn't make sense that I'm asking them to do, they will tell me. Um they will also help me look really, really good in my own job because ultimately that's something you should aim for. Your responsibility is not just to deliver screens or code or documents or something like that. Ultimately, these people you're working for have specific needs and they also want to have the feeling that you're doing your best to make them look good themselves at their own company. In most cases, you're actually not working with the owner of a company, but with someone from middle management or like a team leader or something like that. The aim of these people, of course, is to have a successful project. This is also why they're hiring you, but for them, it's also an opportunity to look really good internally in front of their peers or their superiors. This is also like an unspoken need that they have, and if you can help them achieve that goal and fulfill that need, you will also have a way easier time building your career and being asked back by these people. Because they know not only will you uh do the work that's asked of you, but you will help them look really good, uh internally, in front of their own managers. One thing that you shouldn't do is consider or treat your clients as just an annoying way to get work and money. Instead, try to relate to them on a human level and really try to listen and figure out what their needs are. In some cases, these are outspoken needs, in other cases, these are needs that are just kind of like implied. You should really kind of like have the the empathy and the sensitivity to really like pick up on these things and be mindful about them. So one thing that you shouldn't do is interrupting your client or dismissing their feedback. You should really listen actively to what they're saying, even if your gut reaction maybe is, oh, I'm not sure if that makes any any sense. Especially when you're sitting with them in a meeting or on a call with their colleagues, you should really avoid making them look incompetent or unknowledgeable about a topic, like even if they are. But this is also why they're hiring you, right? I mean, for them, the cost of you making them look bad is just not worth the outcome, even if it's great. So this is something that you should be really careful about, uh really mindful about. I mean, there's also like this kind of like political aspect to it where you have to be careful not to step on anyone's toes. This is something that often takes years to build up, this kind of like skill to figure out like the relationships between different people. So maybe they're asking a question or making a statement that you think is very obvious or irrelevant, but maybe they also just want to kind of like be part of the conversation. And I mean, what you can do in these cases is just acknowledge what they're saying, really, uh making it obvious that you're listening to them. And one thing that's also really helpful is to practice active listening and reflective listening and just play their statements back to them, maybe rephrased in a way that is also shaped by your own expertise. And just basically just tell them, so what you're saying is that you have these concerns and you're worried about these things. And um this is definitely something I'm going to to take with me. Thank you for sharing that. I mean, this is a very easy way to do that without committing to anything. That's again, something you should not do, not just immediately agree with everything that people are saying because that's then kind of like your responsibility to fulfill now. But again, this is um just a very easy way to acknowledge what people are saying, making them feel hurt, and it's it's a kind of like easy thing that everybody can do. So another thing that's really important and also demonstrates that you are listening and taking their input and feedback seriously is taking notes. It's super easy to lose track of things, even important things if you don't take notes because nobody has uh like a perfect memory and a perfect recall. Really take notes, it's demonstrating to them that you're listening, and it's also very easy for you to kind of like go back, take a look at your notes. If you are unsure about like a specific decision that has been made or something that has been discussed in a call, the notes will help you to kind of like uh go back and refresh your memory without having to reach out to people and ask again. One way to lose trust really quickly is if you lie or if you aren't truthful about what's going on. And that seems kind of obvious, but it's something that is very easy to do if you feel pressured or you're feeling insecure about something, or you want to avoid conflict. I mean, we're talking about white lies essentially. And in some case, people don't notice that. In other cases, they actually do notice that and the trust that they have in you immediately disappears, even if it's kind of like a very like little thing. You should always try to be as transparent and upfront and honest with your clients or stakeholders within your company as possible. So that means if you think that actually I might miss the deadline, this is something that you shouldn't hide. Sometimes conversations like this can be uncomfortable, but it's way better to address this when you're becoming aware of it, rather than waiting and hoping that nobody notices or that the situation resolves itself because usually what happens is nothing will get resolved. I mean, people will notice that something is amiss or that you didn't deliver something, then you're in the bad position of trying to justify why you didn't say anything sooner. So, this is again something that can make people lose trust and confidence in you really quickly. However, if you're just upfront about things and you're just very open and honest about like what you can do, what you can't do, uh issues that you have, it's actually going to increase the trust they have in you because they know that not everything goes perfectly all the time. But I know that this person will tell me when something is up and then we can figure it out together instead of just being faced with the consequences of, you know, uh like trying to hide the truth and then, you know, uh suddenly like a big project gets derailed, or somebody is looking really badly in front of their managers. So that's something that you should always be careful about. But just like you shouldn't disrespect or dismiss your clients when you're around them, you shouldn't disrespect them when they're not around. And this is a very easy trap to fall into. I have seen it many, many, many times. I have done it myself in the past many times, especially when I was just starting out and I was very inexperienced, you feel this need to vent if something doesn't go well, or if you feel like there are unreasonable expectations, you know, there's just like this kind of like miss mismatch in the client relationship and, you know, things are just not going well, like there's a lot of conflicts. It's very tempting to uh kind of like talk badly with your colleagues about that client is really stupid, they don't know what they're asking for or something like that. However, ultimately, this is just a reflection of your own inability to effectively communicate and manage that client relationship. Of course, there are also instances when maybe a client really has unreasonable expectations, but that doesn't mean that you should just kind of like insult them, uh when they aren't around because it's also not helping you. It's also not helping you solve that situation at all. Instead, it's better to be just really upfront, uh really consistent in your relationship with them because you're also setting a standard in how you want to be treated yourself. And I think it's just a bad way of uh dealing with people. It's kind of like this very transactional way, like you're happy to take their money, but you actually don't like them or don't respect them. It's also not not pleasant to work with people that you disrespect. Um I mean, if that happens then it's probably better to just not work for them at all. That's also an option that you have. So and this actually brings me to the last topic, managing conflicts. Uh this is really important because it's unrealistic to expect that there will be no conflicts at all. So in some ways, conflict is inevitable. I mean, this also means that people actually care about what's happening. Um they have certain standards, maybe they think these standards aren't met. I mean, ultimately, conflict isn't something that you should shy away from. However, there is a bad way of dealing with conflict and there is a good way of dealing with conflict. Sometimes really kind of like hits you in the core that somebody tells you, well, I am not happy with how things are going, or, you know, like there's this thing that I wanted you to do, it didn't you didn't do it, why did that happen? It's something that can sometimes make you feel like attacked on like a personal level, especially if you are an expert in a specific field and you feel like your expertise isn't taken seriously, or maybe people don't understand certain decisions that you have made. And one thing that you should avoid is really taking things so personally, because nothing good comes out of it. It's also indicative of uh having a bit of an ego about your skills, and this is something that you should really try to set aside, uh because this is really standing between you and the client having a good relationship where you can be just very honest and truthful of each other. When you have kind of like this huge chip on your shoulder, like, hey, but I'm the the technical genius, I'm the expert designer, uh I'm the lifestyle guru or workshop facilitator, whatever it is. If you feel like personally attacked every time you get like criticism or pushback, it's just going to make it so more difficult for you to react calmly and in a way that doesn't also backfire on yourself. So you should really not treat like these client relationships as kind of like these adversarial relationships with someone you have to win over or debate all the time. Because even if you have a fight or a debate or conflict with them, and you think like, ha, I had the better arguments and now they're they shut up. I really shut them up well with what I just said. You have just destroyed the client relationship and that's not helpful to you either. So instead what you should do is just listen to feedback, try to not take it personally, in some cases, you might have a good reason, you know, why you did things a certain way. The most important thing though is not feeling like the need to immediately react. Again, this is something where it's fine to just say, look, I'm listening, I'm listening. I'm not necessarily agreeing with what you're saying, but I'm listening, I'm taking it seriously, I'm taking notes, let me respond to what you just said, let me think about that. This is also taking the pressure away from yourself, reacting to something that they said that maybe felt hurtful, or maybe like dismissive of something that you did. Like when you're emotional, you're going to make bad decisions. Um maybe it will feel right in the moment. However, when you calm down, you will realize, um, maybe I maybe it was actually not that big of a deal. And now I'm kind of like looking looking like I'm really being really difficult because we had this fight. Um, in some cases you can salvage that. However, it's just best if that doesn't even happen. Listen to feedback, try to take it seriously, even if you don't agree with necessarily the point that they were making, but you should at least acknowledge that they have the right to give you feedback. So these were some of the most common mistakes you can make when dealing with clients and client management. And these things are uh really helpful to turn into the person that your clients trust and actually enjoy working with and ask back to do more work for them. I hope this video was helpful. If you'd like to see more videos like this, like and subscribe, and if you have any questions about client management, or you have any experiences you'd like to share, put them in the comments below. Thanks for watching, see you next time.