Telling a client they’re wrong

In a conversation yesterday, a colleague asked if I had to give one piece of advice to a training provider, what would it be. Tough question, as there are quite a few things, and as I’m quite opinionated, but I ended up with this one: the client is not always right.

What I mean by that isn't that it's not important to satisfy the client - quite the opposite. The client should be satisfied, but the way to make them truly satisfied isn't always to agree with everything they say they think they need. Disagreeing with the client about things like how to deliver on their objectives in the best possible way, what deliverables a training programme should include, or even what the root causes of the challenges they're trying to overcome through training actually are, is, in my view, an integral part of bespoke training design.

Delivering a set curriculum - what we call at Teamshaper a capability masterclass — is one thing: a set of exercises and learning insights delivered to a group of people in order to build a skill or improve their work, based on the trainer's experience in the subject matter, enhanced by their lived experience in delivery. Bespoke is the next level of involvement, which is delivering a training programme that's based on the template (what we call a module at Teamshaper) but personalised to the client's objectives, context and circumstances, and using the client's own processes, content or strategy as learning material.

In my experience, though, there's a third level, which is not just to personalise to what the commissioning party tells you they think they need, but to listen carefully to the client, do your discovery and do your homework, and then tell the client what they need in order to meet their objectives.

Some clients, and particularly L&D logistics, are very focused on the deliverables, by the nature of their role - us as the trainer focused on delivering the deliverables too is one level of service, but us as a trainer telling the client that some of the deliverables should be different in order for them to achieve better results in hitting their objectives is another, and that latter one is the one that's more valuable to the client long-term, and ultimately the difference between being a delivery person and consulting. What’s the use in all the experience we gained if we don’t use it to direct the client to the right solutions.

It doesn't work with everyone. Some clients don't want to hear it, and there's a certain time and way to do it, but in my experience it's worthwhile challenging the client sometimes.

Read more about our approach here.