Empathy: how to use it when talking to clients 🤝 (4/6)

Understanding your clients is the first part. 

Having a consistent process for serving your clients is essential. 

Now you have to tell your clients about it.

Client communication is more than product messages and website text.

It happens every time you speak to, email, or text them. It is in every sentence you share. Here are some good habits to build into your customer communication. 

Be clear

Stop using jargon. 

What jargon? Any word or expression that is used in your industry only, or changes meaning in your industry.

Review how you speak to clients now. Look at your marketing materials, and your presentations, and think of the language you use in meetings. 

Take a red pen and circle any word that could be considered jargon. Be harsh! Over-circle rather than under. 

And now replace them with everyday words. 

Be concrete

Don’t sell ideas, and don’t promise concepts. 

Promise deliverables. Sell solutions. Offer specific tools and explain the exact outcomes. 

Use stories to tell your client exactly what will happen when they work with you, and what will happen after working with you. Explain what they will be able to do, that they could not do before. 

Be confident

I often hear people use tentative language when talking to clients. 

“When working with us you may… you might… you could…”

Say “you will”. 

Don’t say you “think” something when you know it. 

Don’t say you “help” clients when you actively work for them. 

Have confidence in what you do and what it will enable for them. 

What next

How are you talking to your clients? Are you aware of how much jargon you are using? Schedule a free 30-minute call to see if some value proposition work might help. 

And, for a bit of fun on this topic, check out my Udemy course on Bad Words for Business.