The Art Of Negotiation (Part 2): Dealing With Difficult Clients

Clients are your golden tickets to attain success in your business or company, especially when they recurrently turn to you for business dealings.On the contrary, they can also be one of your greatest hurdles.

This is more so when they project a hard-to-please attitude and get very demanding towards you. Your job right now is to cross this hurdle!

Below are the seven steps to take when dealing with difficult clients:

Step 1:
Pay careful attention to your clients’ criticisms and keep your cool when asking them questions. By doing so, you can easily determine the likes and dislikes of your clients and think of what you can do to meet their needs.

Step 2:
Do not intervene when your clients are talking, unless they become a little out of hand with their words. It pays to listen to them to the fullest. If they get quite harsh, courteously ask them to keep their cool and speak in a more calmly manner.

Step 3:
Note down the discussions you had with difficult clients and the measures you have undertaken to deal with their apprehensions.

Step 4:
View the issue through the clients’ perspectives. Perhaps the repeated calls and annoying naggings that they have been making are all due to their overload of stress that has got nothing to do with work matters. In other words, they may be burdened with personal matters and get carried away with them.

Step 5:
Do not immerse yourself into a quarrel with your clients. In dealing with clients, your ultimate aim is to come to a win-win situation, rather than to gain everything at their expense. Be more open-minded and receptive of the different opinions.

Step 6:
Clients can sometimes be in the midst of feeling puzzled and downhearted. They are human beings too! So you should be the one to lift them up. A little bit of that can make their day and curtail the frustration in them.

Step 7:
Always remain cool. If you are all steamed up as much as the clients, you can always inform them that you will call them back or arrange the meeting on another day or timeslot. In doing so, you can give yourself some time to overcome your anger.

Clients serve as the base that helps support your business. Without this base, your business could very well tumble and fall.

Therefore, you should let your clients have a sense of belonging in your business, no matter how difficult they are.

Let these seven great tips guide you along in dealing with your clients more effectively and efficiently.