My Experience with a Headstrong Customer

The most challenging people I find are those with more rigid thought process. I would not call them unreasonable because it originates from their vast experience and great achievements. My secret sauce for dealing with such people is to be patient and be detailed oriented.

In one such incident, I was working with a headstrong customer on an initiative to implement the HCM system. Being a veteran in the field of HR systems, he was super knowledgeable and had some established ideas about these implementations.

Initially on the project, when we proposed best possible researched solutions for persistent problems at client organization, all of them were rejected by the director on the ground “It doesn’t happen like that in this organization”.

It was important to get the buy in from the client director for the success of this project.

After detailed interactions with this director about his expectations, I realised that he needs solutions in line with visions of the company and should be supported with facts and figures;

To provide efficient solutions, I divided the team into 2 groups, one – that gathered more and more data for the solutions provided and hence prove why the provided solution is apt. And second – that made sure the solutions that we are providing as per the customer standards. I also benchmarked our solution against the market and provide verifiable reason in case of any deviation. I also started discussing our solutions over wider group consisting of internal experts and asked them to poke holes in our solutions.

After following this process of validation, I realized more buy ins from the director. He started feeling more comfortable with the team. Not only did he started approving the solutions much faster but also, he started providing constructive feedback to make them more effective.

In this way, I was able to turn a naysayer to a contributor. Through this incident I learned the importance of understanding my client’s perspective in this case understanding how the customer organization operates.

Finally, I learned that patience and detail-oriented approach always work wonders in handling such situations. With headstrong people, buy ins are tough but not impossible. They should be dealt with a structured approach. If handled in right way, such people generally bring best leadership qualities in you and make you propose some best-in-class solutions.