Your Week 8 Challenge: Reframe Your Client’s Issue

[Please note: this article, and the rest of the articles in this series, together constitute the 15  emails in the It Starts with Clients Client Growth Challenge. Please subscribe here to receive them on a weekly basis over the next 100 days]

In Week 8 of this challenge, you’ll use reframing strategies to help your client define the right problem, the total problem, and the total solution.

Be sure to read Week 8 of It Starts with Clients, “Reframe for Maximum Impact.”

You may be doing your client a disservice by accepting their definition of the problem or opportunity

You may be doing your client a disservice by accepting their definition of the problem or opportunity Click To Tweet

For many reasons, client executives often frame their challenges narrowly. I see this frequently in my own practice. A client might say to me, “Our people don’t have the skills to build trusted-advisor relationships with senior executives–can you teach them how to do it?” But upon deeper examination, it will often turn out that there are many other factors preventing the development of these coveted C-suite relationships–e.g., the solutions the organization sells, in the first instance, do not address the kinds of enterprise-wide issues that would attract a top executive’s attention. I was once asked to coach and train a new cadre of key account managers, but the client had created this new position without giving the managers any power over either internal resources or the client relationships themselves. I could only succeed by reframing the issue, and my solution, to reflect the totality of the problem.

If YOU don’t try to reframe the client’s issue, you may be essentially enabling them to go for a partial fix that makes people feel good but doesn’t really bring the client closer to achieving their most mission-critical goals.

If YOU don't try to reframe the client's issue, you may be essentially enabling them to go for a partial fix that makes people feel good but doesn't really bring the client closer to achieving their most mission-critical goals. Click To Tweet

TIP: Use my “compass” method for reframing

In Week 8 (starting on page 126 in the hardcover version of It Starts with Clients) I introduce my compass model to help you explore your client’s issue 360 degrees. It guides you to reframe north into strategy, east into enterprise-wide implications, south into implementation, and west into change management.

Your Week 8 Challenge: Reframe your client’s issue

Here’s your Week 8 Assignment: Complete pages 32-33 in the Growth Guide. You can also click here to download this assignment as a separate PDF: Week 8 Assignment.pdf

BTW, If you don’t have a copy of It Starts with Clients yet, please do buy one here, on Amazon (or from your favorite bookseller). It contains a great deal of detailed “how-to” for growing your client base. It is the foundation for succeeding at this 100-Day Client Growth Challenge.

In seven days I will send you your Week 9 Challenge: Build a Client Relationship Growth Plan. So keep an eye out for the next email.

All the best,

Andrew Sobel

Founder and CEO