A one-day workshop
At work, as in life, not everything works out the way you plan.
Sometimes, you need to break the bad news to a client.
A project’s missed a milestone. There are unexpected costs. There’s a technical or quality issue. The client wants you to do something that’s out of scope. There’s a personality clash. The client isn’t honouring their side of the deal. There are problems getting payment.
The reasons can be many but the result’s the same – a potentially challenging conversation with a client. Of course, if you’re a good communicator, if you’ve worked on the right behaviours, mastered the tried-and-tested techniques for dealing with these situations, then these conversations needn’t be so stressful after all. You can even turn them into positive business opportunities.
This programme will help you. It’s a practical opportunity to work on your skills, acquire some new techniques, and practise putting them into practice in a safe environment before trying them out for real.
The main focus is on supporting you in the key skills:
Influence and persuasion
Consulting skills
Empathy
Negotiating positive outcomes
… and doing so in a lively and engaging way. Stretch, not stress!
- Recognise a potentially challenging conversation and appreciate why it needs to be handled carefully
- Master the key principles of ‘challenging conversations’
- Engage in challenging conversations with more confidence and certainty
- Structure and conduct meetings to achieve everyone’s goals faster
- Use proven techniques of influence, persuasion and negotiation
- Make points and arguments with more precision and impact
- Overcoming sticking points using a planned approach
- Deal with ‘difficult people’
- Plan and prepare to achieve win-win results
- Analyse and develop the range of interpersonal and behavioural skills that are crucial for successful negotiation
Expert trainer
Graham specialises in providing high-quality consultancy, coaching and training in commercial and business skills, sales, sales management, customer service and personal productivity. He has a long career in sales and was a top-performing IT and solutions sales professional and sales manager. Before setting up his own consultancy, his last full-time role was as Managing Director of Sales Productivity and Development for a multi-national, helping develop a large European sales force. His work has taken him all over the world and involved him in working closely with hundreds of different organisations from all business sectors, his client list including such organisations as BT, Vodafone, AT&T, Orange, Pfizer, GSK, Boots, Unilever, American Express, Thomas Cook, Apple, Sony, Motorola, Cisco, MFI, Barclays Bank, LIFFE, Abbey National, Prison Service, Home Office, Law Society, BBC, Daimler-Chrysler, Citroen, Weetabix, Nikon, Shell and many, many others. In addition he has written over twenty books published in several different countries, including Companies don’t succeed – people do!, Sales Training Games, Telephone Tactics and Working Smarter.
Session outline
1. Introduction and key principles
- Programme objectives and learning objectives
- Definitions and key principles for leading challenging conversations
- The importance of planning, preparation and using proven methods
2. Efficient meeting preparation
- How to structure, start and manage a challenging conversation
- Body language – reading and conveying
- Meeting techniques that increase your confidence and credibility
3. Core skills for resolving disagreements and differences
- The five modes of conflict and how to move to a partnership mode
- Dealing with ‘difficult’ people
- The challenging communication process – how it works
- How to turn problems into opportunities – using reframing and other skills
4. Essential steps for achieving a positive outcome
- Five key techniques for moving from conflict to agreement
- Using questioning and advanced listening skills to influence and persuade
- Trading concessions and giving ground – when and how.
5. Getting agreement
- Five key techniques for moving from conflict to agreement
- Using questioning and advanced listening skills to influence and persuade
- Trading concessions and giving ground – when and how.
6. Personal action plan
- Learning summary
- Your personal contract to change how you manage challenging client conversations and to put the learning into practice at work
