23 Oct How To Communicate Price Increases
Many items and services have become more expensive in the last few years. Auto insurance, health insurance, homeowners’ insurance, and restaurant food have all seen turbulence and rate changes.
As a coach, we often run 1:1 and group training sessions where we role-play (“real play”) to practice difficult conversations, such as raising a fee or price increase for your services and products. From medical devices to business insurance, we know firsthand how your wording and approach can make or break those conversations about billing and rates.
Some people will avoid this conversation or approach it with guilt or nervousness.
Some will come on too strong, sound defensive, and lose the customer entirely.
Some will need to build trust and demonstrate value to set themselves up for success.
Some fear negotiation overall due to a lack of formal negotiation training.
Successful Negotiation Skills Are Key
The ability to be fearless, ask for what you want or need, and know your value (or the company’s value to the customer) has a tangible impact on the quality of a negotiation and your long-term success. Also, the company depends on you to help meet the overall revenue goals.
One way to approach a rate increase with a client is to examine your mindset. Your mindset has a direct impact on the quality of your negotiation skills.
Having a mindset for success can be a primary factor in finding mutual gain and making both parties feel respected after a negotiation.
Here are some action items you can do to set yourself up for success when you need to address a price change with a client or customer:
How to Ask for What You Want
- Continuously show the value you provide the customer, not just when discussing money.
- Make your gain their gain; how can you create a win for THEM? (I suggest you ask them this)
- Think LONG TERM, not just one conversation at a time.
- Do your homework/ prework. Don’t wing it.
- Build authentic, trusting relationships. How? Be a good listener, do good work, and be helpful but not overbearing.
- Check your tone (be friendly, not apologetic). Smile. Make sure your facial expressions match your words. Listen for their tone also. Does it match?
- Follow up, get creative, and be ready to find new common ground or even part ways if needed.
Align Pricing with Your Organization’s Strategic Goals
Leadership needs to be aligned on how pricing is meant to support the overall strategy and then communicate this with sales reps and folks having these conversations. Without this alignment, any pricing planning is a wasted effort.
We can all agree that paying more for services and products makes us grumpy, but most customers have become trained to tolerate price hikes. Good communicators can have tough conversations and know they can maintain the relationships they have so carefully nurtured over the years.
6 Jun Paraphrase When Communicating and Coaching Others
Paraphrasing is repeating in your words what you interpret someone else to be saying. Paraphrasing is a powerful approach to furthering the understanding of the other person and yourself and can significantly increase the impact of another’s comments.
As coaches, we know paraphrasing is incredibly difficult because we often need to listen deeply, a skill you must purposefully cultivate. Despite appearing attentive, our minds are churning with various thoughts, beliefs, defenses, distractions, and redirections.
The best way to practice paraphrasing is in your personal life. You can apply this powerful skill at work once you get the reps in with your husband, wife, kids, cousins, or friends.
When paraphrasing:
- Focus your paraphrase on what the other person implied rather than what you wish they meant. For example, avoid saying, “So you’re saying you have NO homework? Instead, say, “If I understand correctly, you finished all your schoolwork during study hall?”
- Put the focus of the paraphrase on the other person, e.g., if the person said, “I had a horrible night; I didn’t sleep more than four hours,” then don’t paraphrase, “Well, I WISH I got four hours; I had an even worse sleep; I was up all night.” Instead, say, “Oh no, you only got four hours of sleep?”
- Put the ownership of the paraphrase on yourself, e.g., “If I’m hearing you right…” or “If I understand you correctly…”
- Put the ownership of the other person’s words on them, e.g., say, “If I understand you right, you’re saying that…” or “Do you believe that…” or “Do you feel that…”
In the paraphrase, use some of the other person’s words. For example, if the other person said, “I think we should do more fun outings as a family. We never go anywhere,” You might paraphrase, “If I’m hearing you right, you feel like we need to schedule more outings we can enjoy together as a family?”
Don’t judge or evaluate the other person’s comments, e.g., don’t say, “Don’t you think you should be calmer when we drive in rush-hour traffic?”
You can use a paraphrase to validate your impression of the other’s comments; e.g., you could say, “So you were frustrated when…?”
The paraphrase should be shorter than the original comments made by the other person. Be brief and concise. It’s not about you!
13 Mar Controlling the Impression You Make
What would you like other people to say about you when you are not present?
This 30-minute recorded lesson will reveal the six most frequently selected impressions that leaders of countries and companies worldwide find effective.
12 Mar Virtual Presentations Beyond the Basics
Since COVID, there has been a surge in the use of Zoom, Teams, Slack, and other tools for virtual presentations. Dr. Ethan Becker, President, and Laura Mathis, Executive Communication Coach have together coached hundreds of remote presenters and share best practices in this 30-minute recorded webinar.
13 Feb The Unique Challenges of Neurodiverse Communication in the Workplace
As an Executive Communication Coach, I’m thrilled to see Neurodiversity becoming more recognized and celebrated at work. However, its nuances in the workplace can cause frustration and miscommunications.
For example, if you work with someone who rarely makes eye contact, you might assume they are shy, nervous, or uncomfortable. Using eye contact is an essential nonverbal communication behavior that most of us use automatically in work interactions. Eye contact helps people communicate their interest and attention to a conversation. Yet, making eye contact with others can be very challenging for some people with Autism. There are many books and articles written by adults with Autism who describe the stress they felt when well-meaning bosses and managers tried to force them to make eye contact during conversations, client meetings, or presentations. In many cases, they describe being further distracted and unable to focus on the conversation because of this insistence.
Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one “right” way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits. Still, it is often used in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as other neurological or developmental conditions such as ADHD or learning disabilities.
Here are a few additional definitions for clarity:
Neurotypical is an informal term describing a person whose brain functions are considered usual or expected by society. This term is often applied to people who do not have a developmental disorder like Autism, differentiating them from those who do. It is neither a mental disorder nor even an official diagnostic term.
Neurodivergent describes someone who isn’t neurotypical, and Neurodiverse generally refers to differences in brain function among people diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These words can be applied to other neurodevelopmental conditions like dyslexia or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
There are many forms that Neurodiversity can take, but for this article, I’ll speak specifically about the Autism Spectrum.
I’ve had the opportunity to coach professionals who identify on the Autism spectrum and also have a close family member on the Spectrum, so I have no shortage of practice when it comes to noticing the small microcommunications that are often lost or misperceived. I do not claim mastery but merely the complex process of listening and communicating with clarity, patience, and an open mind.
You may wonder if you currently work with someone on the Autism Spectrum, or perhaps someone has told you specifically that they are Autistic. Either way, how we communicate needs to be looked at with flexibility and deeper understanding.
If you consider yourself Neurotypical, consider the workplace examples below. You’ll see a few ways a Neurotypical person might communicate with someone on the Autism Spectrum (let’s call this person with ASD your “colleague.”). Observe below how messages and information can get crossed:
You don’t get any eye contact from your colleague when speaking with them, and it feels like they aren’t listening.
After a long conversation, your colleague didn’t speak much and only said ‘OK’ and then walked away, but you aren’t sure if they understood.
After an excellent co-presentation with your colleague, you raise your hand to high-five, but they walk back to their desk right past you.
In the elevator, you ask your colleague how their weekend was, and they say “Fine” and don’t ask you back.
You pull a piece of fluff off your colleague’s coat, and they jump away and recoil from you.
Your colleague is the only one who never joins the team for happy hour on Fridays.
You run weekly stand-up meetings where everyone shares their work progress, but your colleague only sends theirs via Slack.
What do you think of these examples?
It might be tempting to diagnose this colleague as…. a JERK!
And maybe that’s true?
In that case, we might be brought in as coaches to help this person come across better in terms of their communication style and approach to relationship building.
But…
It could ALSO be that your colleague is on the Autism Spectrum, which means they may function differently than you when it comes to understanding nonverbal cues, processing verbal information, expressing emotions and thoughts, managing sensitivities to food or sounds, physical touch, social gatherings, knowing how to engage in small talk, and much more.
There is no quick and easy solution to creating harmonious relationships at work with a Neurodiverse colleague. One place to start is recognizing the need for deep understanding and tailored approaches. Acknowledging and addressing distinct differences can lead to a more harmonious and supportive workplace where everyone feels heard, respected, and appreciated.
4 Dec “84% of employees expect this job perk—but most executives think it’s a ‘waste of time’”
Can you guess what it is?
Answer: Eighty-four percent of employees expect their employer to provide the training and education they need to stay up-to-date with changing skills in their industry, according to a recent survey of more than 800 C-suite executives and 800 employees from online learning platform edX.
But senior managers aren’t seeing that way according to an article in CNBC by Ece Yildirim.
The article shares that employees value their career development and want to utilize L&D programs. And they’re willing to look elsewhere if their bosses fail to provide. In the survey, over three-quarters of employees said they’d stay with their current company long-term if it offered better training and development opportunities. More than half said they want to develop skills to position themselves for better future opportunities at their current jobs, but 39% said they’d likely leave within the next year for a job that offers better learning programs.
We know the modern world requires constant upskilling throughout a career. Clients who engage our communication firm The Speech Improvement Company know that driven employees want the opportunity for career growth, not just more work. If you want to attract and retain the best talent, they must be offered the opportunity to get to their next level of mastery. There are a lot of options. How do you know if a specific learning and development program will work for your company?
This training must happen during the work week, not in a fluorescent-lit room off-site over the weekend.
This training should be customized to your company, no one-size-fits-all program that’s delivered to many different companies. Your team should be able to apply the new learning immediately.
This training should be interactive and organized by teams or departments. There should be plenty of time for breakouts and practice with immediate peer and instructor feedback.
Our advice: start talking to trusted advisors about how your company can prioritize learning and development programs to keep your people happy, upskilled, and motivated.
Read the CNBC article: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/13/workers-want-ld-job-perks-bosses-say-theyre-a-waste-of-time-survey.html