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You meet a client who needs your help. However, he prefers that you do it his way, and he’s only happy if you do it his way.

You tell him there’s obviously a better way to do it, and it should be done your way. However, the client insisted that he preferred it to be done his way, even though what you said makes a lot of sense. He just want it to be done his way.

What do you do?

Approach 1 (the hard way): Tell him right in the face that he’s going to regret it doing it his way. It’s going to cost more money, waste lots of time and it’s not going to work out as good as what you’ve proposed. The client usually gets angry at such approaches due to the simple fact that you’ve insulted his intelligence. You’re basically telling him he is not as smart as you and he doesn’t know what’s good for his business. Both of you walk out the meeting room, with the client feeling angry about your holier-than-thou attitude while you’re left confused at what the heck is wrong with him anyway.

Approach 2 (the soft way): You understand that the client’s paying you based on how satisfied he is with your service, and he certainly did not hire you to tell him whether he is right or wrong. More often than not, he’s more satisfied if you tell him he’s right most of the time. You decided that you can only educate this client with your experience when he believes in you first, and the fact that he did not accept the idea right now means that he just don’t trust you enough. Going ahead with ‘his way’ of doing things might not be the best strategy, but in the long run, it gives you the opportunity to educate him and build up that trust in you.

Which strategy do you think would suit you when your client disagrees with you?

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