Nudging Clients toward Commitment

By Michael W. McLaughlin

We’ve all been involved with sales opportunities that seemed to take forever to close. In spite of your best efforts to move the process along, someone or something conspires against the sale, and it drags on. While many of the tactics you might use to “speed up the client’s buying cycle” could lead to a win, they could also work against your long-term interests.

But, once you decide that a sales opportunity is the right one to pursue, your goal is straightforward: to reach commitment with the client to do the project in a mutually beneficial way. As you devote time to working on the sale, though, you also get invested in the sale. And that’s when you can get antsy and want to “speed things up.” That is, get the client to decide faster–in your favor, of course.

On the surface, it makes sense to encourage clients to move a sale along. After all, if you have done your job, the imperative for the work is compelling, the value is specified, and the proposal is crystal clear (at least from your perspective). So giving the client a nudge seems not only harmless, but in everyone’s best interests.

What’s in a Nudge?

Nudges can take many forms. Some consultants try to entice clients to sign on the dotted line by offering to slash their fee, often without a corresponding reduction in scope. Or they might even try to close a sale by offering that lower fee if the client makes the decision by a certain date.

A common variation on this theme is to “sweeten” the deal. Some consultants offer to do additional work, for example, without raising the fee. That’s just a fee reduction by another name, but some consultants can’t resist trying anything to gain an advantage.

You can probably point to cases where nudging strategies like these led to sales. But too often, a short-term win does irreversible damage to your long-term client relationships.

Short-term Wins…Long-term Losses

In sales negotiations, it’s common for clients to ask if you can do the work for a lower fee. They’ve learned that many consultants will say yes, so why not bring it up?

Let’s say you decide to offer a discount as a way to nudge the sale to a win. You might improve your chances of closing the deal that way; it’s certain that you have permanently changed the dynamic of your client relationship.

For starters, your client will wonder why you were willing and able to cut your fee without changing anything else in your proposal. A client can reach one of two logical conclusions to that question, neither of which reflects well on you.

First, the client could assume that your original profit margin was so high that an arbitrary fee cut was a pain-free concession. That assumption, in turn, could lead the client to conclude that you intentionally inflated the fee in your proposal.

The second (and far worse) conclusion is for your client to think that your initial fee was a guess and you don’t have a handle on profitability at all. If that’s the conclusion, you can bet that the client will examine any subsequent proposal you submit under a microscope.

In either case, the client will be pleased to get a fee concession. But you also introduce the shadow of a doubt in your client’s mind about your trustworthiness. If you’re willing to cave in on your fee, what else will you compromise to get what you want? Plus, you should expect your future proposals to be subject to tough price wrangling.

Instead of offering price cuts or scope increases, stand firm on the value you’re offering. If your client can’t or won’t pay your fee, find a new level of mutual benefit. When your ideas are good enough and your proposal is compelling, you’ll often find that clients come around and agree to the original fee.

If you want to use price negotiation to prod a client’s decision, first reiterate the value of your proposed solution. Then, discuss options for achieving a different level of value at a lower fee. In an ideal world, you would have discussed scope and the fee with your client long before your proposal is on the table. But some clients will still try to negotiate price no matter what.

Creating Resistance

If you’ve ever gotten on the radar of an old-school car salesperson, you know how it feels to be nudged and followed up with to the point of harassment. Consultants rarely resort to such pressure tactics, but we often hear the advice to “stay close to the sale” with repeated follow-up calls and visits.

Like any strategy to accelerate a client’s decision process, incessant follow-up can have inadvertent consequences. Some clients view any effort to rush them with great suspicion. They might worry that your motive is to close the sale before they fully understand your proposal or uncover all the details about your competitors. If clients suspect that, your push to go faster can backfire and slow the process to a standstill.

It’s also possible that by pressuring clients to close a sale, you unintentionally harden the unfavorable positions of those you most want to influence. That’s not the way to bring skeptics around to your way of thinking. By pushing for a faster decision instead of wooing detractors, you risk turning skepticism into stubbornness.

Plus, your dogged pursuit of the sale can cross the line between being perceived as a go-getter and appearing desperate. When you keep calling and calling, someone is bound to ask, “Doesn’t this person have anything else to do?” You want clients asking questions about your value, background, and ability to do the work, not whether you might be a stalker.

A Better Way to Prompt Action

If you must nudge a client forward, find more creative ways to do it. Maybe you perceive the problem to be the lack of a good decision-making process. In that case, suggest ways to help your client make that process more effective. Are there concerns about your proposed approach? Offer a workshop to address how you will do the work. If there are influencers who don’t know you, ask if you can help them evaluate the proposal.

With a bit of thought, you can always find a rational strategy for helping a client decide more quickly–without setting back the prospects for a long-term relationship. You never want to convey a false sense of urgency to clients. But if a true imperative for action looms, it’s your job to bring that story to life for them.

Whatever you do, remember that clients’ time isn’t yours to manipulate. They may be receptive to some subtle nudges, but be careful not to push too hard. Once a client views you as a self-interested seller instead of a business adviser, it is very hard to recover.