From Asshole to Ally: Why Ambitious Professionals Lose Trust and How to Earn It Back

From Asshole to Ally: Why Ambitious Professionals Lose Trust and How to Earn It Back

Get the free ebook

Get the free ebook

Win The Question

SKILLS TO EARN CLIENT TRUST

Contact Scott

Take the trust skills quiz

Win The Question

SKILLS TO EARN CLIENT TRUST

Field Notes

/

Try This

Try This: When the Client Goes Silent

Try This: When the Client Goes Silent

When a client goes silent, it’s tempting to keep going. Ask three questions before your first recommendation, then count to five.

When a client goes silent, it’s tempting to keep going. Ask three questions before your first recommendation, then count to five.

R. Scott Armstrong

R. Scott Armstrong

2 min read

The headline “When the client goes silent.” above the four trust skills, with Ask, Don’t Answer underlined.

When your client goes silent, it’s tempting to keep going. But often wiser to slow down and ask first.

Try this: before your first recommendation, ask three questions about their problem. Three that work almost anywhere:

  • What’s prompting this now?

  • What happens if it doesn’t get solved?

  • What does success look like?

And when the room goes silent, ask one question and give them time to answer. “What part of this are you least sure about?” Count to five in your head before you say anything else. It will feel long. Let it.

More on this skill: Ask, Don’t Answer: The First Trust Skill

When did a client last go silent on you? Email me at scott@winthequestion.com. It might be a story worth exploring on my new podcast, Worth Knowing.

Try This comes every two weeks: one client situation and one thing to try. Get it in your inbox.

Take the trust skills quiz before you forward this one to your team.

FILED UNDER

Try This

Skill:

Ask, Don’t Answer

THE TRUST SKILLS QUIZ

Find your growth skill.

Four trust skills. One of them will move you further than the other three. Find out which.

Take the trust skills quiz

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. Scott Armstrong

R. Scott Armstrong co-founded Brainrider in 2010 and still runs it. He has more than 20 years teaching, coaching, and practicing trust-building inside a successful client-services business. Author of From Asshole to Ally: Why Ambitious Professionals Lose Trust and How to Earn It Back.

Connect on LinkedIn

More Field Notes

Browse all Field Notes

Try This: When a Client Opens Up

Try This

Try This

Try This: “Yes, Exactly.”

Try This

Try This

Try This: When the Client Pushes Back

Try This

Try This