Lesson – Turning Chaos Into Compliments
KEY TAKEAWAY
As part of any Salesforce engagement, it’s vital that you connect with your stakeholders, all of the end users, the testing team, and the entire project team on the business side.
You want to win them over so that when conflicts emerge, tensions rise, trade-offs are requested, or when they find that they’re not getting that thing that they really wanted, you still have tremendous rapport and loyalty.
Transforming Interactions
Client interactions are really relational. They cannot be reduced to technical acumen.
Swooping in and being ‘the master’ as it relates to Salesforce architecture, is not what’s going to win a client over or make them never want to work with someone else. What’s going to create that loyalty is you being:
- A relatable person.
- A person the client can talk to.
- Honest with the client.
- Able to make clients feels they can be honest with you.
- Invested in learning all about their business, and loving to get into their world and help them improve it.
Effective Communication Strategies
One method that consistently works is something I call turning chaos into compliments.
For example, have you ever gone into a business and started the discovery process with questions like, “How do you guys manage this today?”
The client may respond with: “I wouldn’t say we manage anything. We just do it.”
Or maybe you ask, “What tools do you guys use to get this process done?” and hear back: “What tools? Some of us use Excel, some of us use Word, some of us have these printed pieces of paper.”
Oftentimes there is not one standardized process that occurs in a business, especially with small to mid size firms. This is the size of business that our team has engaged with the most, historically. We could do one of two things with the information and with the responses from the client.
Option 1: You could commiserate by responding with something like:
- “Wow. You guys have real problems.”
- “What’s wrong with your leadership?”
- “Don’t they give you any tools?”
This is often tempting because it feels like you are becoming part of the team and joining them at their level. Fight that temptation, this is not where we want to go.
In this situation, we want to go with ‘Option 2’: a high empathy method that ends on a high note.
Client Relationship Management
Despite having no standard process or no consistent tools they are still doing what needs to be done for the customer. And odds are, as they have hired you from the outside to help, their organization is growing. Which means they are doing it well. Remember, you are the consultant that was hired to bring them a process and to bring them the consistent tools.
You want to think about what it is that the client’s team is doing
to still get the job done and deliver value to their customers.
Despite not having any of that, they’re still getting the work done. They’re still delivering to customers in a way that is attracting more. That sounds like something that we can compliment. So, rather than emphasizing the chaos and possibly putting their noses in it, let’s focus on the compliments of what great people they are. For example, you might say something like:
- “Wow, you guys are really incredible people, as you’ve had to work really hard to get the work that you were hired to do, done . That’s great! You guys have done a tremendous job with your customers despite not having a really mature process yet.”
- You want to say “yet” because you’re helping them bring together a process that they can use moving forward.
The answers that the client gives, are the times where people are being vulnerable with you. They’re exposing the gaps and where they’re lacking and they know their process is immature or outdated. They already know it’s not the best. Yet they’re showing it to you anyway, and that’s a very vulnerable position.
Managing Difficult Conversations
Often when organizations are moving to Salesforce, they have a lot of chaos, but you can take that chaos, leverage it into compliments, and highlight the gems that these people are for the business. Doing this will enable them to:
- See their own strengths
- Build dedication to the effort
- Will show a strong commitment
- Will buy into the solutions you offer
- And, recommend you for other projects
You want to take that vulnerability, and you want to cherish it like a gem. You want to shine every facet of it, and you want to show it to them as something that’s beautiful.
Leverage chaos into compliments, not into complaints and not into comparisons with the prior consultant. Keep it positive, and build yourself tremendous allies, and momentum by taking the chaos that you see all over the business, and turning it into compliments. That’s why they hired you.
Lessons Learned
- Understand the importance of building rapport with stakeholders and project teams.
- Recognize the role of positive communication in fostering collaborative relationships.
- Learn techniques to turn project challenges into opportunities for compliments.
- Develop strategies to create allies and momentum within the project through positive reinforcement.