Speaker 1: So the topic today is secrets to optimal client service. So what are the rules of thumb you can use to deliver optimal client service? And I think these rules of thumb apply whether you're an investment banker or a management consultant or a lawyer or any professional person who finds himself in a position to be working with or covering clients. So what are the heuristics? What are the rules of thumb that you should use when you cover clients? The first is to never use jargon. Never use jargon with a client. So you're all in school. You are learning jargon terms. You are practicing those jargon terms with each other, with your friends, with your colleagues, with your professors. When you graduate, you will go and work at a firm in your chosen profession. And you will continue to learn more jargon terms and practice those with your colleagues. You will become very familiar with those terms. It will become habitual to use them. It will roll off of your collective tongues. Don't use them with clients. If you're a lawyer, you'll learn terms like summary judgment or res judicata. If you're an investment banker, you'll learn terms like enterprise value or CAGR or CAPM. Don't use those with clients. If you do, chances are the client won't understand the term you're using. And there's even a greater chance that if they don't understand it, they will not ask you what it means. They don't want to appear foolish, so they won't ask you. So what will they do? They will sit there in silence, not understanding the term, feeling foolish, and resenting you for making them feel that way. So don't use jargon. The second rule of thumb, the second heuristic that you should use or follow when covering clients is to pause. Pause when you're talking to clients, when you're presenting. Why should you do that? There are three reasons why you should do that. The first reason is if you're presenting to a prospective client or an existing client, chances are you're nervous. And when you're nervous, you speak more quickly. The cadence of your voice, of your speech picks up. Pause. If you pause, it will slow you down. It will make you appear less nervous to the client. It also has a unique positive feedback effect. If you pause, it actually calms you down. You feel less nervous. So pause to slow yourself down. The second reason to pause is because when you pause, you create an empty space. You create a vacuum, a space into which the client is likely to ask a question or make a comment. That's good. You want your presentation not to be a speech. You want it to be a conversation, a dialogue. Pausing encourages dialogue. It encourages comments, questions from the client. The third reason to pause is because there is by definition, by nature, a power imbalance that exists. The client has power. You have less. Pausing creates uncertainty. That uncertainty serves to slightly shift the balance in your favor. So pause when talking with clients, when making presentations to clients or prospective clients, pause. The third secret to delivering optimal client service is to look for opportunities to give the client advice that is contrary to your own interests. Look for opportunities to give advice to your client where the advice is contrary to your own interest. For example, if you and your firm only get paid if a transaction is consummated, advise the client not to consummate the transaction, if that makes sense for the client, of course. There's no more powerful way to establish credibility with a client than to give them advice that they know is not in your interest. An example I just gave, they know you're not gonna get paid and your firm's not gonna get paid. To give them the advice you just gave them not to close the transaction. So look for opportunities to give the client advice that is not in your interest. Number four, the fourth heuristic, the fourth rule of thumb to use when covering clients in order to deliver optimal client service is to ask open-ended questions. Ask open-ended questions. Avoid questions that lend themselves to yes, no answers. So for example, instead of asking the client, are you worried about competitors entering your market space and taking market share away from you? Instead of asking that question, ask the client, what are you worried about? What are your concerns? You want to ask open-ended questions for two reasons. The first reason is because you want to get the client to talk. People enjoy talking about themselves. That may sound cynical, but that is a fact. So the more you get the client to talk about themselves, the more they're going to enjoy the meeting and the more they are going to associate interaction with you in a positive way. So ask them open-ended questions. Ask them questions about their background. Ask them questions like, what was it like founding this company? What was it like in the early days? Why did you find the company? So the first reason to ask open-ended questions is because you want the client to talk. It will make the client's experience better. The second reason is it will help you do your job better. You'll learn things about the client. You'll learn what the client's biases are, what their interests are, what their passions are, what their fears are. That will help you do your job better. So ask open-ended questions because the client will enjoy the meeting more and because you will learn more about the client and you will do your job better. Number five, the fifth secret, the fifth heuristic, the fifth rule of thumb to use when covering clients to deliver optimal client service is to be positive, be upbeat. People like to be around people who are positive and energetic and upbeat. So when you walk into a meeting and the client asks you how you're doing, your answer should always be something like, great, thanks, how are you? It should never be something like, oh my gosh, I'm having a horrible day. I lost my cat, I'm really worried about him. Don't do that. Okay, the client may react with sympathy but it's not the right thing to do. You have been hired to solve problems for the client. You have not been hired and you are not there to foist your problems upon the client. Be upbeat, always, always be positive. Number six, be careful about mixing business with social activities. I almost never do this personally. Others do and it can work well for people. I don't do it. But if you do or you do it to some extent, make sure you have a bright line and you don't cross that line. I remember when I started at Goldman Sachs a long time ago, I had come to the firm with a lot of new associates. We had come from all different graduate schools, the best schools all over the country and the world. And two months into my associate training class program, I wrote down a list of the 10 people, the 10 new associates who I thought would be most successful five years later, most successful at this job, most successful at delivering optimal client service. So of the hundreds of new associates at Goldman Sachs, I wrote down a list of the people who I thought, the 10, who I thought in five years would be the best. And then I pulled this list out five years later and I was dead wrong. So on my list of 10, most of them weren't even at the firm anymore. They had been fired or quit. And those who were, were struggling. The criteria that I used, the characteristics that I looked for were almost contra indicators of success in delivering client service. I thought it would be helpful and important if you had past sales skills, past sales experience. I thought it would be important and helpful if you were a good schmoozer. I thought it would be helpful if you were good at golf or tennis. In my experience, none of those things matter. None of them matter. Clients hire you because you're smart, because you work hard, period, full stop. So be smart, work hard. Clients do not hire you because you can take them out to a fancy dinner. So be careful about mixing business with social activities. Number seven, seventh heuristic, the seventh rule of thumb to use to deliver optimal client service is to be humble. Be humble. So when you're asking those open-ended questions that I talked about earlier, about the client's background, about their business, make comments that indicate humility, that are complimentary to the client, that indicate humility on your part. Being humble is endearing. So make comments like, what you have done with your company is extraordinary. It's very impressive. Comments like, I could not hope to know a fraction of what you know about your business. Now, by the way, make sure these comments are genuine. The comments I just made, those two comments, I could make and would be genuine about just about every client with whom I have worked over the last 30 years. Be humble, it's endearing. Number eight, the eighth heuristic, is to be responsive and available to clients. You want to tell the client upfront, you want to tell them upfront, immediately, that they are important to you. You should tell them that. You should also tell them that you will be available whenever they need you. Tell them that. But you need to back that up by doing the following. You need to be responsive. When they call you, call them back immediately. When they email you, email them back immediately. Respond immediately. You may not know the answer to their question on their email or the one they're asking you on the phone call, that's fine, it doesn't matter. Respond immediately. Let them know you're going to get the answer. But be responsive. And this is particularly important in the early stages of a relationship. It's particularly important early on because first impressions die hard. And you want to make a good impression, you want to give the client the impression, you want to leave them with the impression that they're important to you and that you will be responsive. Tell them they can reach you any time and then follow that up by being responsive. Be responsive to the client. Be available. Number nine. Ninth rule of thumb when covering clients to follow is to take a position. Clients are hiring you to give them advice. So tell them what to do. Don't equivocate, don't back down, don't be nervous. Tell them what you and your firm would advise them to do. That is what they want. They want you to tell them what to do. It's fine to present options if you like, but advocate for one option. Tell the client what to do. Take a position. Number 10. The 10th heuristic, the 10th secret to delivering optimal client service is to control the meeting. So if you're meeting with a client or a prospective client, it's your meeting, it's not anyone else's meeting. Don't let anyone hijack the meeting. Don't let the client or anyone on the client's team or anyone else in the room hijack the meeting. Don't let them distract you. Don't let them take you off topic. If someone asks you a question that's unrelated to the topic that you are discussing, your response should be something like, great question. I'm gonna get to that in 10 minutes. Or hold that thought, it's a great point. Oh, it's always a great point. I'm gonna cover that shortly. Do not let them sidetrack you. If you do, you'll do a bad job for the client. You'll do a bad job in the meeting. You'll lose the confidence of the client. And you'll get sidetracked. You won't deliver the meeting in the way that you would like. You won't cover all of the material. The client will suffer and you will suffer. Control the meeting. Do not allow anyone to hijack your meeting. Number 11, the 11th secret, and this is the final one, is have an agenda, have an agenda, and write things down. Walk into your meeting with an agenda. And then communicate that agenda to the client right up front. Start the meeting by saying, today we thought we'd cover the following things. One, two, three. Does that make sense? Ask, does that make sense? You want the client to buy into the agenda from the very beginning. You want the client to own the agenda with you from the very beginning. If the client says, well, I'd like to add the following, no problem, add it. If the client wants to remove anything from your agenda, no problem, remove it. But agree on the agenda, and if you do, the client will have bought into the agenda and will have gone a long way toward buying into the contents of your entire meeting. Have an agenda, communicate the agenda up front, get the client to buy into the agenda, and then write things down during the meeting. It doesn't matter whether you think you need to write them down or not, doesn't matter whether you have a photographic memory, write things down. You do that because one, it's endearing to do that, but two, you want to convey to the client that you are not gonna drop a ball, that you are not gonna forget to do anything that you've told them that you're going to do. So write things down, and at the end of the meeting, recap the follow-up items, recap them. Say, so we have the following items that we're going to follow up with you on. One, we're going to revise the model and send it to you in a week. Two, we're going to wait for you to send us the agenda, the new numbers on your revenue forecast. If you haven't sent them to us by Friday, we'll send you an email to remind you. Three, tomorrow we'll send you follow-up dates and times for suggestions for our next meeting, which we should schedule in three weeks, et cetera. Recap the follow-up items. The client will feel less anxious, they will feel like this person is in control, and this person is not gonna drop a ball. The analogy I use here goes back to one of the most basic kinds of client service, being a waiter. When you walk into a restaurant, and if you're with nine of your friends, the 10 of you sit down, waiter comes over to the table, each of you order a drink, and an appetizer, and a main course, and some side dishes, and the waiter doesn't write anything down and doesn't recap what it is that all of you ordered. I can guarantee you that there's some people at that table who are somewhat anxious about what they're gonna actually get in 15 minutes when the food comes out. You do not want your client to be anxious about the fact that you may, or the idea that you may forget to follow up on some of the items that he or she has asked you to follow up on. Write them down, recap them at the end. So those are the 11 secrets to providing optimal client service. So to recap them, the first is never use jargon. Never use jargon. The second is to pause, pause. Slow yourself down. The third is to look for opportunities to give the client advice where the advice is not in your interest. Number four, ask open-ended questions. Ask a lot of them. Get into the practice of doing that. Avoid questions that lend themselves to yes, no answers. Number five, be positive. Be upbeat, always. Six, be careful about mixing business with social activities. Number seven, be humble. Number eight, be available, be responsive. That's particularly important in the early stages of a relationship, as I mentioned. Number nine, take a position. Tell the client what to do. Don't equivocate, don't back down. Tell them what you and your firm recommend that they do. Number 10, control the meeting. It's your meeting, no one else's meeting. Don't allow anyone else to take control of it. Number 11, have an agenda. Communicate the agenda to the client up front. Get them to buy into it and take notes and write things down.