June 21, 2024 • 28 mins
Can women navigate difficult conversations in business with the same confidence as their male counterparts? Join me, Damaris Ramirez, on "Amigas, Let's Talk," as we tackle this provocative question head-on. This episode is packed with actionable insights and strategies to help you handle challenging discussions about pay, benefits, poor performance, and more—without compromising your authenticity or values. Together, we'll explore how transparency, empathy, and strategic communication can empower you to boost your leadership skills, gain respect, and influence your professional environment.
We'll also dive into effective customer communication techniques to handle pricing objections and manage complaints like a pro. Learn how flexible payment options, tiered pricing, and emphasizing your expertise can justify your costs while keeping your prices steady. Plus, discover the transformative power of active listening, sincere apologies, and prompt resolutions in maintaining customer loyalty. To enhance your understanding even further, we recommend Leigh Caldwell's "The Psychology of Price" and Stephen Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." So grab your coffee or tea, and let's talk about mastering these essential conversations with confidence and grace.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to Amigas, let's Talk, the show
where we discuss life andbusiness and everything in
between.
I am your host, damaris Ramirez, and every week we will bring
you stories and insights,hopefully to inspire you to
think differently.
My goal is that every womanlives her best life.
So, amiga, grab a cup of coffeeor tea and let's talk.
(00:23):
Amiga, today we're going totalk about navigating difficult
conversations and how we canimprove our communication skills
.
And as women, we have to learnto be better at handling
difficult conversations, eitherin our life or in our business,
and we can do it by first facingthat.
And we can do it by firstfacing that.
(00:45):
We're not good at it becausewe're facing socialization and
gender norms, like, we love toprioritize harmony and we love
to avoid confrontation, and alot of times, that also makes
(01:06):
difficult conversationschallenging for us.
We're a lot of times afraid ofthe negative perception that it
might bring.
We may fear that we might beseen as aggressive or unlikable.
A lot of times also, we haveconcerns about how it's going to
affect our relationships.
We worry about addressingissues directly and instead we
don't want to harm ourrelationships or we don't want
(01:29):
it to lead into any conflict.
And, lastly, I think one of theissues that we have is that we
lack assertiveness training, andI say this because, compared to
men, women usually receive lesstraining in school or even
encouragement in life inassertiveness skills and
(01:52):
unfortunately, those are crucialfor us to navigate difficult
conversations effectively.
But it's okay, we can learn, wecan change.
But it's okay, we can learn, wecan change, we can become our
own advocates and we can learnto be better.
And I think it's importantbecause we have to improve so
(02:16):
that we have more careeradvancement or business
advancement.
So we have to master handlingthese difficult conversations
and I thought that would be agood topic for today, and not
only is that going to improveour confidence, it's also going
to add to our leadership skillsand, at the end of the day, it's
(02:37):
essential for us to gainrespect and influence, whether
that's in your workplace or inyour business.
So I specifically wanted tocover a couple of topics today,
and those are going to be how dowe have difficult conversations
when we're discussing pay andbenefits with our team members
or employees?
How do we address poorperformance?
(02:59):
How do we have the difficultconversations when we're
negotiating with our suppliers?
How do we discuss pricing witha client without lowering the
price.
And then the last one I threwin that I thought it's worth
discussing is let's talk abouthow do we manage customer
complaints.
So let's get right into it.
(03:21):
Let's get right into it.
Sometimes we have to havedifficult conversations about
pay and benefits.
Where our employees are teammembers, whether that's in a
large company or a smallbusiness, sometimes there's
budget constraints and you'renot able to increase their pay
or give them a bonus.
(03:41):
So one of the things you wantto do is you want to acknowledge
the employee's contributionsand explain the financial
realities of the business.
You want to express thecommitment that you have to your
employee and how, because ofthat, you want to potentially
find alternative ways to showyour appreciation.
(04:03):
So some of the things that youcould do if your budget is tight
is you can offer themadditional responsibilities.
You can offer them professionaldevelopment trainings.
You might be able to find somefree ones or low cost ones.
You could even offer flexibleworking arrangements so that
they feel that they have betterwork-life balance.
(04:26):
You need to emphasize thattheir growth and satisfaction
are your number one priority,that you want to assure them
that in the future, you'rewilling to revisit the
conversation about their pay andbenefits as the company's
financial situation improves.
You have to be transparent, youhave to show empathy and the
(04:49):
conversations have to bestrategic with your employees,
but at the same time, you wantto be open about your business
and its goals.
You can say things like well,thank you for your dedication
and hard work at our company.
At this time, due to budgetconstraints, we're unable to
(05:10):
make changes to your pay andbenefits, but we appreciate you
and your understanding of thesituation and your ongoing
contributions to this team, andthen express those alternative
ways that I mentioned before, sothat they feel that you hear
them, but yet you're alsooffering some solutions.
(05:31):
At my small business, a coupleof years ago, I was able to
offer to one of my employeesthat I wanted to design some
stickers and design a bag for mystudents to carry all their
medical coding books, and myemployee was able to use the
company resources and time andspend the time designing the
(05:54):
stickers and bags, and I thinkwhat happened was that the
initiative of letting thisperson do that it didn't only
rejuvenate their creativity andmotivation, but at the end of
the day, it led to an innovativeidea for my business and,
(06:15):
honestly, the stickers in thebags.
They're still a big hit todayand that's because of the work
that that one person did.
It's difficult sometimes toaddress poor performance with a
team member, but in a smallbusiness, the team member a lot
of times feels like family, soyou don't want to have the
(06:37):
conversation, but as an owner,you have to address poor
performance, even if it's afamily member or a close friend.
What you want to do is you wantto balance empathy and
professionalism.
So you do that by having stepsthat you're going to follow.
For example, you want toschedule a meeting.
(06:57):
You want to have it during timethat there are no interruptions
.
You want to do it privately.
You want to have the discussionby starting out with a positive
note and you can do that byacknowledging that employee
strengths and contributions.
And you could say somethinglike I want to start by
acknowledging your dedicationand your hard work that you have
(07:21):
shown.
And you could be specific.
You can say a task or a project.
Or you could say I reallyappreciate your positive
attitude and how youconsistently support my business
, especially during that busytime, and what this is going to
do it's going to help you set apositive tone at the beginning
(07:41):
of the conversation before thenyou get into the areas where you
would want improvement.
But when you do get into theareas of improvement, you want
to be very specific as to whatare these areas where there has
been poor performance.
So you might want to prepareahead of time and have them
written down so that you don'tget nervous and you can remember
(08:05):
them.
And then you want to set someexpectations as to you know,
this was poor performance andthis is what my expectation is
of how I would like it toimprove and what is the
expectation of what your productor service should be and what
(08:26):
you're expecting your customersto get.
And then, after that, what youwant to do is you want to
together develop an action plan,Make sure that it's clear that
it to the employee, so they havesomething, a takeaway that they
(08:57):
can follow, so that they alsohave a chance of being
successful with theirimprovement.
And then the other thing youwant to do is, before you end
the conversation, is you want tolet them know that you're going
to have follow-up andmonitoring, and for the
follow-up I would suggest thatyou set up a date and time in
the future where you can meet.
(09:19):
The goal will be that they'veimproved and that that meeting
is really a conversation aboutsuccess of you.
Know you're doing great.
I'm so happy that we were ableto have a conversation and
figure this all out and thenmaybe at that time you can offer
(09:40):
additional work or something, atakeaway, where they feel like,
okay, you know I improved andnow we can move forward.
But the most important thing isthat you do show clear
expectations while at the sametime showing that you care For
(10:01):
me.
An example is that a few yearsago I was preparing for a boot
camp course and I had developeda binder that had different tabs
and one of my team membersneeded to put it together and it
was a lot of binders, so theyhad to assemble my binder.
But when I took a little peekbecause I always like to do a
(10:24):
little bit of quality check Inoticed that the pages were in
the wrong order.
Things were not even matchingwith the tabs and, honestly, in
the beginning I was a littlefurious.
But instead of having a sterntalk, I decided to instead take
the attitude of just having alittle humor about it.
(10:47):
So I placed a little sticky onthe outside of one of the
binders and put it on thisperson's desk and it said please
check the pages for all thebinders.
And then, right next to thesticky note, I placed a pack of
chocolate chip cookies.
And then I put a sticky note onthat and I wrote the words
(11:11):
brain fuel.
So when my employee got back totheir desk and saw my note and
then saw the little pack ofcookies, they were chuckling and
I think they appreciated mylighthearted approach to saying,
hey, you did something wrong,and they quickly fixed my
binders, you know, making surethat they were perfect.
(11:33):
For my course, my belief is thatwe're all human.
I make mistakes, we all makemistakes and you know we have to
accept feedback because that'sonly going to make us better,
and the reality is that we allcan give feedback in a nice,
(11:54):
professional and kind way.
We have to learn to negotiatewith suppliers.
This is an area that's toughfor me, that I work on all the
time, and we have to negotiate.
That's going to give us betterterms.
We have to negotiate that'sgoing to give us better terms,
(12:17):
and the reality is that itdoesn't hurt to ask.
We have to develop the skill ofconfidence, of assertiveness,
and in this particular space ofhaving difficult conversations
with our suppliers, the key isthat you're prepared.
You need to mentally bespecific with what is the
(12:37):
quantity that you want, what isthe quality, what is your
expected delivery schedule.
You want to conduct marketresearch and look at price
trends so that you know, onceyou do set or agree to a price,
that you're getting the bestoffer.
(12:58):
And so a good way to start aconversation when you're
negotiating with a supplier isto establish a positive and a
collaborative tone during theconversation.
So, for example, I would saythank you for meeting with me
today.
I appreciate the opportunity todiscuss how we can strengthen
(13:21):
our partnership and ensure thatwe have a mutual benefit, and
the reason I say that is becauseI want to let the supplier know
that I am interested in gettingthe best deal and that it's not
just one side, it's not justabout them selling me something
that I'm expecting that theyalso identify.
(13:44):
You know what is the benefit ofme staying with them or me
getting a product from them?
It opens the door for me tohave a positive and a productive
discussion while I'm trying toimprove the terms of the deal or
explore cost-savingopportunities.
(14:04):
And so after I say that, then Itry to follow up and the
follow-up is really just tofollow up and the follow-up is
really just basically validatingmy statement.
So I say I've done someresearch on the market and the
(14:25):
rates and I'm here because I'veworked with you before.
If that's the case, I'll saythat, and so I want to continue
to work with you.
But I believe that there mightbe an opportunity for us to
discuss how, you know, we canadjust the pricing further.
So basically, I'm letting themknow that I did my homework and,
in a nice way, that I could gosomewhere else if they're not
(14:48):
willing to give me, you know, agood deal.
And I always like to follow thequote by the American romance
novel author, nora Roberts.
She always says if you don'task, the answer is always going
to be no.
So you want to ask and you wantto try to get the best deal
(15:09):
always.
Also, another book that I wantto recommend to you that might
be good in this area and I'malways trying to, as I said in
the beginning of this topic,trying to improve with
negotiating with my suppliers isa book by Linda Babcock and
Sarah Lashever, and their bookis called Women Don't Ask, and
(15:35):
in Linda and Sarah's book theyexplore how we avoid negotiating
for what we want, whetherthat's in negotiating our salary
or a promotion or some otheropportunities, and that we do
that because of social andcultural conditioning.
And I enjoyed the book becauseI like that it offered insights
(16:01):
and strategies for empoweringwomen to overcome these barriers
and how we should positivelyadvocate for ourselves, whether
that's in professional or in ourpersonal lives.
So go check it out.
I think probably the number onedifficult conversation that I
(16:24):
find startups have is discussingtheir pricing, whether that's
for their service or product,without lowering their price,
without ending up having to giveeverything at a discount, and
it's really important tocommunicate the value of your
(16:45):
product or service effectively.
So let's talk about somestrategies and possibly some
phrases you can use when you'readdressing this issue.
So the first strategy I wouldsay for discussing your pricing
is that you need to make surethat you're always emphasizing
(17:05):
the value and benefit of yourproduct, so you're going to
focus on the unique benefits ofyour project or service.
You're going to focus onhighlighting you know what is
the long-term saving or theadvantages of someone getting
your service or product.
You can use statements like ourservice includes these specific
(17:27):
features right, list them one,two, three, whatever they may be
, and then you want to followthat with which ensure again
that this and this and thishappens.
So you're saying what you'reproviding and what's going to be
the benefit.
The next thing you want to dois, in your statements, address
(17:50):
the customer's pain points soyou could say, with our product
or with our service, you'regoing to be able to save or
improve, right, save time ormoney or improve in this area in
the long run because of youtaking advantage of our service
(18:13):
or product.
So it's really important thatthe unique benefits are
identified.
The other thing that I do isanother strategy is that,
instead of lowering the price, Ioffer flexible payment options.
So that's something anybody cando, especially if you're doing
(18:34):
a service.
I offer it in all of my courses, in all of my bootcamps,
because they're a little priceyand I just think that just
allows more people to be able tobenefit from my service.
So you want to be able tosuggest different payment plans
(18:54):
or maybe even differentfinancing options.
So you could, you know, doPayPal or Venmo, or maybe link
up with a finance company,whatever that is that you could
do for the customer financiallyis going to be greatly
appreciated.
You can also provide tieredpricing and maybe have different
(19:17):
levels of your service so thatmaybe one person can't afford to
get the entire practice packagebut they can purchase one
portion of it.
So when addressing theseflexible payment options or
packages, maybe you can say asyour comeback statement, if
(19:38):
they're saying that you knowthey want you to lower the price
, you can say we offer flexiblepayment plans so that we can
make it easier for you to manageyour budget.
Or you could say you can choosefrom our different service
packages, so that way you canpick whatever or whichever is
(19:58):
the best one that meets yourneeds.
So you want to be able to havethese sentences available so
that you get used to having acomeback to these obstacles or
barriers that your customers arefacing.
And the other thing you can dowith the price is don't forget
(20:18):
to showcase what the quality ofyour product is or the expertise
that you provide.
So you want to emphasize thematerials.
You want to emphasize theexpertise of your team
specifically, right, you caneven compare your offerings to
some of your competitors.
That way you can highlight howyours is superior to theirs.
(20:40):
And as far as sentences, youcould say our team has over 15
to 20 years experience indelivering exceptional service
of the highest quality.
Or you may be able to say weuse high quality materials that
ensure durability andeffectiveness, which is what our
(21:01):
pricing reflects.
So nobody wants bad quality.
Everybody wants to get the bestproduct and the best deal.
So you just have to remind themof what is it that you're
offering, and you want todiscuss it confidently, right
and without lowering the price.
So, using these strategies andthese sentences, you can
(21:23):
effectively communicate theworth of your product or service
to you know, all the potentialclients.
So a good book to help you inthis area that I could recommend
to you is is a book called thePsychology of Price how to Use
Price to Increase Demand, profitand Customer Satisfaction and
(21:44):
this book is written by LeighCaldwell, and this book I like
because it goes into thepsychological aspects of pricing
and how to use them to youradvantage.
So if you're the kind of personthat needs a little science
behind it, then this is going tobe the book for you.
Okay, amiga, the last topic Iwant to discuss today related to
(22:08):
having difficult conversationsis how do you manage customer
complaints, and if you have asmall business, this is
important.
If you work in a corporation,this is important.
So it's important that youactively listen, that you're
(22:28):
empathetic, that you are good atproblem solving, and Stephen
Covey says in his book the SevenHabits of Highly Effective
People a satisfied customer isthe best business strategy of
all.
Seek first to understand andthen to be understood.
And this is so true and this iswhy I usually follow four steps
(22:53):
to handle my customercomplaints, which I don't have
many, but in every businessthere's always going to be
something that maybe fallsthrough the cracks, and what's
important is that you have aplan on how to address it and to
correct it immediately.
So the first thing is obviouslyto listen actively, and you
(23:20):
want to listen.
And then you want to say to thecustomer something like thank
you for bringing this to myattention.
Something like thank you forbringing this to my attention.
I understand your frustrationand I want to make sure and
assure you that we are listeningcarefully to your concerns.
And you need to start there,because you want to acknowledge
(23:41):
that you hear them.
Then, right after, that iswhere you're going to apologize.
Okay, remember, the customer'salways right.
So you're going to apologizesincerely for the issue or the
inconvenience, and you do thatby saying something like we
sincerely apologize for theinconvenience that this has
caused you.
Your satisfaction is importantto me and we're committed to
(24:05):
resolving this issue as quicklyas possible.
And we're committed toresolving this issue as quickly
as possible.
And notice I did includeimportant to me because you want
to personalize it to thatperson, to that customer that
you personally, the persontaking the complaint or
receiving it, is taking it veryseriously.
(24:26):
And then the next thing you wantto do is you want to try to
resolve the complaint promptlyand effectively.
So you want to express that ina way that the customer
understands that that's whatyou're doing.
So you can say something likeyou know, my goal is that we
work together to find a solutionthat meets your expectations.
(24:47):
I personally am going to ensurethat I address this matter
comprehensively and effectively,and this again not only
personalizes it but reiteratesthat you're here to help them
feel better about you finding asolution, that you're going to
(25:07):
do whatever you can to meettheir expectations, because you
don't want to lose them as acustomer.
This is the area also whereyou're going to get all the
details.
So, while you're talking aboutresolving the complaint properly
and effectively, the only wayyou're going to do that is if
you're making sure that you'regetting all the information from
(25:30):
the customer or the client asto why they're not satisfied.
And then, lastly, you want tofollow up.
You want to follow up to ensurethat your customer satisfaction
is met and that you can alsomaintain loyalty from this
customer.
So here you can say somethinglike at the end of this
(25:51):
conversation you could say afterwe resolve this issue, I
definitely am going to follow upwith you to make sure that
everything is to yoursatisfaction, because your
feedback is very valuable to usand it helps us improve our
service and our business.
And, again, every step of theway, we're acknowledging,
(26:13):
reiterating, letting them knowthat they matter.
And one of the things I highlysuggest you do is that you keep
a running list of yourcomplaints.
Hopefully they're less than apage, right?
You know, depending on the sizeof your company, that's how big
your complaints are going to be.
The more, the bigger yourcompany gets, the more
complaints you're going to get.
(26:34):
That's just how life goes.
So write it down and you wantcause you don't want it to fall
through the cracks.
You want to make sure thatyou've taken down the date of
the complaint, who is thecustomer, their contact
information, who has beenassigned to of the complaint,
who is the customer, theircontact information, who has
(26:55):
been assigned to resolve theissue.
Have a column that identifieswhen the follow-up was done
after, to make sure that you canmaintain customer loyalty.
So it's just a good way to havea process of how to address your
complaint, and you want to tryto, you know, address the issues
as soon as possible.
Here you have it.
(27:16):
These are some examples of howI handle difficult conversations
and some communicationtechniques that you might be
able to use also, and so don'tforget to tune in next week
where I'll be talking about thepower of emails and newsletters
(27:36):
in your business.
Thank you for making Amiga'slet's Talk part of your day.
We hope you enjoyed listeningto today's episode and be sure
to hit the subscribe button toget notified when we release the
next one, and if you knowsomeone who would enjoy the show
, please share it with them.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for listening, andremember to smile, listen and be
(27:59):
patient today.
Until next time, bye.
Hello and welcome to Amigas, let's Talk, the show
where we discuss life andbusiness and everything in
between.
I am your host, damaris Ramirez, and every week we will bring
you stories and insights,hopefully to inspire you to
think differently.
My goal is that every womanlives her best life.
So, amiga, grab a cup of coffeeor tea and let's talk.
(00:23):
Amiga, today we're going totalk about navigating difficult
conversations and how we canimprove our communication skills
.
And as women, we have to learnto be better at handling
difficult conversations, eitherin our life or in our business,
and we can do it by first facingthat.
And we can do it by firstfacing that.
(00:45):
We're not good at it becausewe're facing socialization and
gender norms, like, we love toprioritize harmony and we love
to avoid confrontation, and alot of times, that also makes
(01:06):
difficult conversationschallenging for us.
We're a lot of times afraid ofthe negative perception that it
might bring.
We may fear that we might beseen as aggressive or unlikable.
A lot of times also, we haveconcerns about how it's going to
affect our relationships.
We worry about addressingissues directly and instead we
don't want to harm ourrelationships or we don't want
(01:29):
it to lead into any conflict.
And, lastly, I think one of theissues that we have is that we
lack assertiveness training, andI say this because, compared to
men, women usually receive lesstraining in school or even
encouragement in life inassertiveness skills and
(01:52):
unfortunately, those are crucialfor us to navigate difficult
conversations effectively.
But it's okay, we can learn, wecan change.
But it's okay, we can learn, wecan change, we can become our
own advocates and we can learnto be better.
And I think it's importantbecause we have to improve so
(02:16):
that we have more careeradvancement or business
advancement.
So we have to master handlingthese difficult conversations
and I thought that would be agood topic for today, and not
only is that going to improveour confidence, it's also going
to add to our leadership skillsand, at the end of the day, it's
(02:37):
essential for us to gainrespect and influence, whether
that's in your workplace or inyour business.
So I specifically wanted tocover a couple of topics today,
and those are going to be how dowe have difficult conversations
when we're discussing pay andbenefits with our team members
or employees?
How do we address poorperformance?
(02:59):
How do we have the difficultconversations when we're
negotiating with our suppliers?
How do we discuss pricing witha client without lowering the
price.
And then the last one I threwin that I thought it's worth
discussing is let's talk abouthow do we manage customer
complaints.
So let's get right into it.
(03:21):
Let's get right into it.
Sometimes we have to havedifficult conversations about
pay and benefits.
Where our employees are teammembers, whether that's in a
large company or a smallbusiness, sometimes there's
budget constraints and you'renot able to increase their pay
or give them a bonus.
(03:41):
So one of the things you wantto do is you want to acknowledge
the employee's contributionsand explain the financial
realities of the business.
You want to express thecommitment that you have to your
employee and how, because ofthat, you want to potentially
find alternative ways to showyour appreciation.
(04:03):
So some of the things that youcould do if your budget is tight
is you can offer themadditional responsibilities.
You can offer them professionaldevelopment trainings.
You might be able to find somefree ones or low cost ones.
You could even offer flexibleworking arrangements so that
they feel that they have betterwork-life balance.
(04:26):
You need to emphasize thattheir growth and satisfaction
are your number one priority,that you want to assure them
that in the future, you'rewilling to revisit the
conversation about their pay andbenefits as the company's
financial situation improves.
You have to be transparent, youhave to show empathy and the
(04:49):
conversations have to bestrategic with your employees,
but at the same time, you wantto be open about your business
and its goals.
You can say things like well,thank you for your dedication
and hard work at our company.
At this time, due to budgetconstraints, we're unable to
(05:10):
make changes to your pay andbenefits, but we appreciate you
and your understanding of thesituation and your ongoing
contributions to this team, andthen express those alternative
ways that I mentioned before, sothat they feel that you hear
them, but yet you're alsooffering some solutions.
(05:31):
At my small business, a coupleof years ago, I was able to
offer to one of my employeesthat I wanted to design some
stickers and design a bag for mystudents to carry all their
medical coding books, and myemployee was able to use the
company resources and time andspend the time designing the
(05:54):
stickers and bags, and I thinkwhat happened was that the
initiative of letting thisperson do that it didn't only
rejuvenate their creativity andmotivation, but at the end of
the day, it led to an innovativeidea for my business and,
(06:15):
honestly, the stickers in thebags.
They're still a big hit todayand that's because of the work
that that one person did.
It's difficult sometimes toaddress poor performance with a
team member, but in a smallbusiness, the team member a lot
of times feels like family, soyou don't want to have the
(06:37):
conversation, but as an owner,you have to address poor
performance, even if it's afamily member or a close friend.
What you want to do is you wantto balance empathy and
professionalism.
So you do that by having stepsthat you're going to follow.
For example, you want toschedule a meeting.
(06:57):
You want to have it during timethat there are no interruptions
.
You want to do it privately.
You want to have the discussionby starting out with a positive
note and you can do that byacknowledging that employee
strengths and contributions.
And you could say somethinglike I want to start by
acknowledging your dedicationand your hard work that you have
(07:21):
shown.
And you could be specific.
You can say a task or a project.
Or you could say I reallyappreciate your positive
attitude and how youconsistently support my business
, especially during that busytime, and what this is going to
do it's going to help you set apositive tone at the beginning
(07:41):
of the conversation before thenyou get into the areas where you
would want improvement.
But when you do get into theareas of improvement, you want
to be very specific as to whatare these areas where there has
been poor performance.
So you might want to prepareahead of time and have them
written down so that you don'tget nervous and you can remember
(08:05):
them.
And then you want to set someexpectations as to you know,
this was poor performance andthis is what my expectation is
of how I would like it toimprove and what is the
expectation of what your productor service should be and what
(08:26):
you're expecting your customersto get.
And then, after that, what youwant to do is you want to
together develop an action plan,Make sure that it's clear that
it to the employee, so they havesomething, a takeaway that they
(08:57):
can follow, so that they alsohave a chance of being
successful with theirimprovement.
And then the other thing youwant to do is, before you end
the conversation, is you want tolet them know that you're going
to have follow-up andmonitoring, and for the
follow-up I would suggest thatyou set up a date and time in
the future where you can meet.
(09:19):
The goal will be that they'veimproved and that that meeting
is really a conversation aboutsuccess of you.
Know you're doing great.
I'm so happy that we were ableto have a conversation and
figure this all out and thenmaybe at that time you can offer
(09:40):
additional work or something, atakeaway, where they feel like,
okay, you know I improved andnow we can move forward.
But the most important thing isthat you do show clear
expectations while at the sametime showing that you care For
(10:01):
me.
An example is that a few yearsago I was preparing for a boot
camp course and I had developeda binder that had different tabs
and one of my team membersneeded to put it together and it
was a lot of binders, so theyhad to assemble my binder.
But when I took a little peekbecause I always like to do a
(10:24):
little bit of quality check Inoticed that the pages were in
the wrong order.
Things were not even matchingwith the tabs and, honestly, in
the beginning I was a littlefurious.
But instead of having a sterntalk, I decided to instead take
the attitude of just having alittle humor about it.
(10:47):
So I placed a little sticky onthe outside of one of the
binders and put it on thisperson's desk and it said please
check the pages for all thebinders.
And then, right next to thesticky note, I placed a pack of
chocolate chip cookies.
And then I put a sticky note onthat and I wrote the words
(11:11):
brain fuel.
So when my employee got back totheir desk and saw my note and
then saw the little pack ofcookies, they were chuckling and
I think they appreciated mylighthearted approach to saying,
hey, you did something wrong,and they quickly fixed my
binders, you know, making surethat they were perfect.
(11:33):
For my course, my belief is thatwe're all human.
I make mistakes, we all makemistakes and you know we have to
accept feedback because that'sonly going to make us better,
and the reality is that we allcan give feedback in a nice,
(11:54):
professional and kind way.
We have to learn to negotiatewith suppliers.
This is an area that's toughfor me, that I work on all the
time, and we have to negotiate.
That's going to give us betterterms.
We have to negotiate that'sgoing to give us better terms,
(12:17):
and the reality is that itdoesn't hurt to ask.
We have to develop the skill ofconfidence, of assertiveness,
and in this particular space ofhaving difficult conversations
with our suppliers, the key isthat you're prepared.
You need to mentally bespecific with what is the
(12:37):
quantity that you want, what isthe quality, what is your
expected delivery schedule.
You want to conduct marketresearch and look at price
trends so that you know, onceyou do set or agree to a price,
that you're getting the bestoffer.
(12:58):
And so a good way to start aconversation when you're
negotiating with a supplier isto establish a positive and a
collaborative tone during theconversation.
So, for example, I would saythank you for meeting with me
today.
I appreciate the opportunity todiscuss how we can strengthen
(13:21):
our partnership and ensure thatwe have a mutual benefit, and
the reason I say that is becauseI want to let the supplier know
that I am interested in gettingthe best deal and that it's not
just one side, it's not justabout them selling me something
that I'm expecting that theyalso identify.
(13:44):
You know what is the benefit ofme staying with them or me
getting a product from them?
It opens the door for me tohave a positive and a productive
discussion while I'm trying toimprove the terms of the deal or
explore cost-savingopportunities.
(14:04):
And so after I say that, then Itry to follow up and the
follow-up is really just tofollow up and the follow-up is
really just basically validatingmy statement.
So I say I've done someresearch on the market and the
(14:25):
rates and I'm here because I'veworked with you before.
If that's the case, I'll saythat, and so I want to continue
to work with you.
But I believe that there mightbe an opportunity for us to
discuss how, you know, we canadjust the pricing further.
So basically, I'm letting themknow that I did my homework and,
in a nice way, that I could gosomewhere else if they're not
(14:48):
willing to give me, you know, agood deal.
And I always like to follow thequote by the American romance
novel author, nora Roberts.
She always says if you don'task, the answer is always going
to be no.
So you want to ask and you wantto try to get the best deal
(15:09):
always.
Also, another book that I wantto recommend to you that might
be good in this area and I'malways trying to, as I said in
the beginning of this topic,trying to improve with
negotiating with my suppliers isa book by Linda Babcock and
Sarah Lashever, and their bookis called Women Don't Ask, and
(15:35):
in Linda and Sarah's book theyexplore how we avoid negotiating
for what we want, whetherthat's in negotiating our salary
or a promotion or some otheropportunities, and that we do
that because of social andcultural conditioning.
And I enjoyed the book becauseI like that it offered insights
(16:01):
and strategies for empoweringwomen to overcome these barriers
and how we should positivelyadvocate for ourselves, whether
that's in professional or in ourpersonal lives.
So go check it out.
I think probably the number onedifficult conversation that I
(16:24):
find startups have is discussingtheir pricing, whether that's
for their service or product,without lowering their price,
without ending up having to giveeverything at a discount, and
it's really important tocommunicate the value of your
(16:45):
product or service effectively.
So let's talk about somestrategies and possibly some
phrases you can use when you'readdressing this issue.
So the first strategy I wouldsay for discussing your pricing
is that you need to make surethat you're always emphasizing
(17:05):
the value and benefit of yourproduct, so you're going to
focus on the unique benefits ofyour project or service.
You're going to focus onhighlighting you know what is
the long-term saving or theadvantages of someone getting
your service or product.
You can use statements like ourservice includes these specific
(17:27):
features right, list them one,two, three, whatever they may be
, and then you want to followthat with which ensure again
that this and this and thishappens.
So you're saying what you'reproviding and what's going to be
the benefit.
The next thing you want to dois, in your statements, address
(17:50):
the customer's pain points soyou could say, with our product
or with our service, you'regoing to be able to save or
improve, right, save time ormoney or improve in this area in
the long run because of youtaking advantage of our service
(18:13):
or product.
So it's really important thatthe unique benefits are
identified.
The other thing that I do isanother strategy is that,
instead of lowering the price, Ioffer flexible payment options.
So that's something anybody cando, especially if you're doing
(18:34):
a service.
I offer it in all of my courses, in all of my bootcamps,
because they're a little priceyand I just think that just
allows more people to be able tobenefit from my service.
So you want to be able tosuggest different payment plans
(18:54):
or maybe even differentfinancing options.
So you could, you know, doPayPal or Venmo, or maybe link
up with a finance company,whatever that is that you could
do for the customer financiallyis going to be greatly
appreciated.
You can also provide tieredpricing and maybe have different
(19:17):
levels of your service so thatmaybe one person can't afford to
get the entire practice packagebut they can purchase one
portion of it.
So when addressing theseflexible payment options or
packages, maybe you can say asyour comeback statement, if
(19:38):
they're saying that you knowthey want you to lower the price
, you can say we offer flexiblepayment plans so that we can
make it easier for you to manageyour budget.
Or you could say you can choosefrom our different service
packages, so that way you canpick whatever or whichever is
(19:58):
the best one that meets yourneeds.
So you want to be able to havethese sentences available so
that you get used to having acomeback to these obstacles or
barriers that your customers arefacing.
And the other thing you can dowith the price is don't forget
(20:18):
to showcase what the quality ofyour product is or the expertise
that you provide.
So you want to emphasize thematerials.
You want to emphasize theexpertise of your team
specifically, right, you caneven compare your offerings to
some of your competitors.
That way you can highlight howyours is superior to theirs.
(20:40):
And as far as sentences, youcould say our team has over 15
to 20 years experience indelivering exceptional service
of the highest quality.
Or you may be able to say weuse high quality materials that
ensure durability andeffectiveness, which is what our
(21:01):
pricing reflects.
So nobody wants bad quality.
Everybody wants to get the bestproduct and the best deal.
So you just have to remind themof what is it that you're
offering, and you want todiscuss it confidently, right
and without lowering the price.
So, using these strategies andthese sentences, you can
(21:23):
effectively communicate theworth of your product or service
to you know, all the potentialclients.
So a good book to help you inthis area that I could recommend
to you is is a book called thePsychology of Price how to Use
Price to Increase Demand, profitand Customer Satisfaction and
(21:44):
this book is written by LeighCaldwell, and this book I like
because it goes into thepsychological aspects of pricing
and how to use them to youradvantage.
So if you're the kind of personthat needs a little science
behind it, then this is going tobe the book for you.
Okay, amiga, the last topic Iwant to discuss today related to
(22:08):
having difficult conversationsis how do you manage customer
complaints, and if you have asmall business, this is
important.
If you work in a corporation,this is important.
So it's important that youactively listen, that you're
(22:28):
empathetic, that you are good atproblem solving, and Stephen
Covey says in his book the SevenHabits of Highly Effective
People a satisfied customer isthe best business strategy of
all.
Seek first to understand andthen to be understood.
And this is so true and this iswhy I usually follow four steps
(22:53):
to handle my customercomplaints, which I don't have
many, but in every businessthere's always going to be
something that maybe fallsthrough the cracks, and what's
important is that you have aplan on how to address it and to
correct it immediately.
So the first thing is obviouslyto listen actively, and you
(23:20):
want to listen.
And then you want to say to thecustomer something like thank
you for bringing this to myattention.
Something like thank you forbringing this to my attention.
I understand your frustrationand I want to make sure and
assure you that we are listeningcarefully to your concerns.
And you need to start there,because you want to acknowledge
(23:41):
that you hear them.
Then, right after, that iswhere you're going to apologize.
Okay, remember, the customer'salways right.
So you're going to apologizesincerely for the issue or the
inconvenience, and you do thatby saying something like we
sincerely apologize for theinconvenience that this has
caused you.
Your satisfaction is importantto me and we're committed to
(24:05):
resolving this issue as quicklyas possible.
And we're committed toresolving this issue as quickly
as possible.
And notice I did includeimportant to me because you want
to personalize it to thatperson, to that customer that
you personally, the persontaking the complaint or
receiving it, is taking it veryseriously.
(24:26):
And then the next thing you wantto do is you want to try to
resolve the complaint promptlyand effectively.
So you want to express that ina way that the customer
understands that that's whatyou're doing.
So you can say something likeyou know, my goal is that we
work together to find a solutionthat meets your expectations.
(24:47):
I personally am going to ensurethat I address this matter
comprehensively and effectively,and this again not only
personalizes it but reiteratesthat you're here to help them
feel better about you finding asolution, that you're going to
(25:07):
do whatever you can to meettheir expectations, because you
don't want to lose them as acustomer.
This is the area also whereyou're going to get all the
details.
So, while you're talking aboutresolving the complaint properly
and effectively, the only wayyou're going to do that is if
you're making sure that you'regetting all the information from
(25:30):
the customer or the client asto why they're not satisfied.
And then, lastly, you want tofollow up.
You want to follow up to ensurethat your customer satisfaction
is met and that you can alsomaintain loyalty from this
customer.
So here you can say somethinglike at the end of this
(25:51):
conversation you could say afterwe resolve this issue, I
definitely am going to follow upwith you to make sure that
everything is to yoursatisfaction, because your
feedback is very valuable to usand it helps us improve our
service and our business.
And, again, every step of theway, we're acknowledging,
(26:13):
reiterating, letting them knowthat they matter.
And one of the things I highlysuggest you do is that you keep
a running list of yourcomplaints.
Hopefully they're less than apage, right?
You know, depending on the sizeof your company, that's how big
your complaints are going to be.
The more, the bigger yourcompany gets, the more
complaints you're going to get.
(26:34):
That's just how life goes.
So write it down and you wantcause you don't want it to fall
through the cracks.
You want to make sure thatyou've taken down the date of
the complaint, who is thecustomer, their contact
information, who has beenassigned to of the complaint,
who is the customer, theircontact information, who has
(26:55):
been assigned to resolve theissue.
Have a column that identifieswhen the follow-up was done
after, to make sure that you canmaintain customer loyalty.
So it's just a good way to havea process of how to address your
complaint, and you want to tryto, you know, address the issues
as soon as possible.
Here you have it.
(27:16):
These are some examples of howI handle difficult conversations
and some communicationtechniques that you might be
able to use also, and so don'tforget to tune in next week
where I'll be talking about thepower of emails and newsletters
(27:36):
in your business.
Thank you for making Amiga'slet's Talk part of your day.
We hope you enjoyed listeningto today's episode and be sure
to hit the subscribe button toget notified when we release the
next one, and if you knowsomeone who would enjoy the show
, please share it with them.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for listening, andremember to smile, listen and be
(27:59):
patient today.
Until next time, bye.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.