Communicating Clearly with Various Clients

Want to stand out as a law firm associate? Have a dialed-in client email strategy. Ease the burden of your in-house contact's email inbox. As with any strategy, understanding the reality of your in-house clients' world is key: they're juggling multiple legal matters. They're serving dozens or even hundreds of internal "clients" across their organization. Each business unit, manager, and project team needs their attention. Their inbox is a constant stream of urgent requests, necessary approvals, and internal discussions. Every email you send either adds to or eases this cognitive burden. How you email can make a real difference in how clients view both you and your firm. Your email habits show you understand their world and are actively working to make their job easier (bad habits will have the opposite effect). In addition to understanding their world, it's important to understand their communication preferences. In other words, there's no one-size-fits-all-approach here. But...there are some solid go-to techniques that, at least in my experience, most in-house counsel appreciate. Here are a few ideas: 1. Lead with clear "next steps" at the top of a substantive email—don't bury action items in lengthy prose. 2. Write in a way that makes it easy for your in-house contact to forward to business colleagues: use plain English summaries, clear headers, and explicitly call out what's needed from each stakeholder. 3. Remember that your email might be forwarded multiple times as part of internal discussions, so make it scannable and self-contained—a business executive should be able to understand the key points without needing the full email chain for context. 4. Make your subject lines work harder—label them clearly as [ACTION NEEDED] or [UPDATE ONLY] and include a few key details for context. 5. Keep separate matters in separate emails—this makes it easier for your in-house contact to forward only relevant pieces to different business teams. 6. When sending documents for review, highlight the 2-3 key areas needing attention rather than leaving them to hunt through the full document. 7. Instead of sending multiple updates, consolidate them into regular digestible summaries. Create a predictable rhythm your clients can rely on—they'll appreciate knowing when to expect updates and can plan their workflow accordingly. 8. For complex matters with multiple workstreams, maintain a simple status report that can be quickly skimmed or forwarded to show progress at a glance. These things might seem small, but they demonstrate real professionalism and understanding of your clients' needs. You're not just handling legal work—you're actively making your clients' jobs easier. And that goes a long way toward helping you stand out as an associate for the right reasons.

One of the best ways to differentiate yourself as a statistical consultant is to communicate clearly. This is easier said than done, as statistics is not intuitive and relies heavily on technical jargon. Here are the tips and tricks I use to ensure I retain my clients and win new business by providing the best services possible: 1️⃣ I know my audience. Do they have technical backgrounds or not? Are they new to the project, or have they been working on this for a long time? I then tailor my talking points to meet my audience where they are instead of asking them to meet me where I am. A good example of this is with p-values and confidence intervals. I break things down to their most basic - if our p-value is less than this threshold, we have study success. I'm not using terms like "reject the null hypothesis" right out of the gate if my audience is not familiar with statistics. 2️⃣ I start every discussion/presentation by stating what the objective is - what am I trying to achieve with my presentation, with my report, etc. "My goal is to provide you with A, B, and C." "By the end of this presentation, you should walk away with X, Y, and Z" I can't tell you the number of times I have seen biostatisticians become misaligned with what the client was actually asking for, and the whole project becomes a disaster. Take the time to align your understanding of the objectives with your client, and only once you are aligned should you proceed with your talking points. 3️⃣ Be a human first. Smile. Seriously, this is a big one. If you can relate to your client as a person (Do you both have kids? A dog? Do you have a crazy story to share of what happened to you on the way to the office?), your discussion will be that much easier if the person sitting across the table views you as a human. As statisticians, we can be very direct (I might be more guilty of this than anyone), but it is important to stop and remember that we are all human, and there is more than just p-values and confidence intervals in the world 😎). Would you rather do business with someone who is happy and brings energy, or would you rather work with someone who does not bring energy? *Please don't get me wrong here, I'm not telling you to share your life story and I'm not telling you to waste your clients time not getting down to business, (you absolutely need to get down to business, this is what you are being paid for) but what I am saying is to take a couple minutes every now and then to really get to know your client and to share more about yourself with your client. Relationship building and bringing energy are critical. These have never let me down, and I hope they are helpful to you as well. If you have any other tips on how to be a great communicator as a statistician, please do share. I (and I believe this community 😃) are always eager to learn. Happy Communicating. Happy Wednesday

💡 “My CPA doesn’t strategize for me.” That’s what a prospect told me yesterday. He owns a retail store, real estate, and even Airbnb properties—and I thought, Wow, this is a gold mine for tax planning! 🌟 But what I discovered next completely surprised us both... As we talked, he shared some details about his finances: 🏬 A highly profitable retail business (he owns the building too!) 🏠 Several residential properties, including one on Airbnb 🏢 A commercial property generating solid income 💰 Capital gains he’s trying to manage 👨👩👧👦 A wife and several young kids to support When he mentioned paying $50K in taxes, I thought, “That’s not bad for all that income.” But he quickly added, “My CPA doesn’t implement strategies for me.” I suggested he upload his tax return so I could take a look. 🧐 Upon reviewing it, here’s what I found: ✅ Real Estate Professional Status (huge tax savings for real estate investors) ✅ Short-Term Rental Strategies ✅ Self-Rental Rules (leveraging his own properties to reduce taxes) ✅ Cost Segregation + Bonus Depreciation (accelerating deductions on his properties) His CPA had clearly implemented advanced strategies—all of which are highly effective for someone with his portfolio. 👏 I told him, “Your CPA did a fantastic job. These are the exact strategies we would have recommended.” But here’s the surprising part: He had no idea. He was shocked. Why? Because his CPA never explained these strategies, their benefits, or how much money they were saving him. The Real Lesson Here This conversation made me pause and reflect on something I see often: As CPAs, we’re so deep in the weeds, working hard to deliver value, that we forget to take the time to show it to our clients. We focus on: 🔍 Mastering complex tax codes 📈 Crunching numbers 💼 Implementing advanced strategies But without clear communication, clients might feel like nothing is being done for them—even when we’re doing amazing work behind the scenes. What Can We Learn? 💬 Communicating Value is as Important as Delivering It. Here are 3 ways we can bridge the gap: 1️⃣ Educate Your Clients: Take a moment to explain strategies and how they’re saving money. Break it down in simple, relatable terms. 2️⃣ Show Tangible Results: Highlight numbers, such as tax savings or increased cash flow, to make your work feel real to them. 3️⃣ Build Relationships Through Transparency: Regularly update clients, so they feel informed and confident in your expertise. #taxes #communication #education #entrepreneurship #money #investing

The most dangerous threat to your agency isn’t poor fulfillment.  It’s poor communication. I'll explain: I’ve built five multi-million dollar agencies. From my experience, the single most important skill set required to be successful in the agency space has nothing to do with the actual work. It’s a subset of client management and it will absolutely make or break your business. After 17 years in the agency world and building three 7-figure businesses, this truth hits harder than any strategy tip I could share. Most agency founders focus on improving deliverables: better ads, smarter strategy, tighter operations. But that’s not what sinks you. It’s the client who feels ignored. The email that wasn’t clear. The updates that weren’t sent. The silence that made the client assume the worst. Even top-performing teams lose clients when they fail to communicate well. In fact, the better someone is at their job, the worse they often are at communication. Why? Because mastery creates blind spots. When you know your craft inside out, it’s easy to forget how much your client doesn’t know. That’s the curse of knowledge. To protect our clients and our team, we codified communication into our operations. We call it The 3 Cs of Communication: CLARIFY When a client brings up an issue, your first job isn’t to fix it. Your first job is to restate it. Repeat it back in your own words. Get confirmation that you understand exactly what they mean. This ensures you're solving the right problem, not just the one you think they meant. COMMIT Don't promise what you can’t control. Instead, commit to next steps that are 100% within your power. This builds confidence, shows progress, and keeps you accountable. CLOSE No one likes being left in limbo. Give your client a finish line. Tell them when you’ll follow up, even if there’s no resolution yet. “This is my priority. You’ll hear from me by 3 PM tomorrow.” Now they can move on with peace of mind. These aren’t fluffy ideas. They’re systems. We train our team on them. We evaluate people on them. They’re the reason clients stick around even when we hit bumps in the road. Because when a client knows you’re present, proactive, and in control, They’ll trust you through anything. If you run an agency, build communication into your culture. It’s the skill that keeps everything else from falling apart. - Was this helpful? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow for more. Stop doing it all yourself. Hire your perfect Executive Assistant at https://paretotalent.com

Over the past 20 years in market research, many project issues I've seen stem from mismanaging client expectations. Whether you work for a research firm, an agency, a consultancy, or any other business that involves regular client discussions, here are 4 pointers. 1️⃣ Communication—Regularly communicate, candidly ask the client how often they want updates, and never let a week go by without touching base, regardless of the project stage. Anticipate questions and answer them before they ask. A client sending an email asking, "What's the status of...?" is a failure on your end - within reason. Lack of responsiveness leads to mistrust, even more micromanagement, skepticism, and other issues that can be snuffed out by communicating openly. 2️⃣ Be Realistic—We all want to say "yes" to clients, but there are often ways to showcase your experience and expertise by being honest about what can be achieved with a given timeline and budget. The expectation could be a lack of understanding about the process or industry norms. Underpromise and overdeliver versus overpromise and underdeliver. Those honest conversations may appear inflexible, but they're often more about setting expectations and setting up both parties for long-term sustainable success. Saying "no" to this project could be a better long-term decision for the account than saying "yes" and failing with no second chance. 3️⃣ Understand Perspective—Take the time to actively listen to your client's needs, goals, and priorities. It goes beyond listening and includes asking smart (and sometimes bolder) questions to get a complete understanding. What drove the need for research? Why is receiving results within 2 weeks crucial? What happens if you don't receive results in 2 weeks? Understanding what's pushing the decisions behind the scenes can be a game changer. 4️⃣ Solutions Over Problems—Never present a problem or an issue to a client without a path forward. "This happened, but here are 3 things we can do to fix it." You need to be more than someone who relays information, you need to be a true consultant. Be able to justify each recommendation and explain the pros and cons of each path. -------------------------------------- Need MR advice? Message me. 📩 Visit @Drive Research 💻  1400+ articles to help you. ✏️ --------------------------------------

Perfect client communication is not a one-time thing. Nope. That's just not how it works 📣 After many years of frustration, I stopped looking at communication as a destination and embraced it as a journey. No matter how many times I'd try to explain a project plan super clearly, make all the docs, and run an amazing kickoff... we somehow still end up with the clients on their own wavelength. Getting a full alignment is not even wishful thinking. That's fantasy land. And it used to drive me crazy. Not because the clients are difficult. They're not. It's just that we're all human. People hear things through their own filters. They get distracted. They check email during your calls. They remember what matters to them, not what matters to the project. And over time, that perfect clarity evaporates. Over the years, I came up with a strategy that works quite well for our team: ➡️ 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘁. The second you think "we already covered that" - that's when things fall apart. ➡️ 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘀 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀. Create meetings specifically to check if you're still on the same page. And don't ask "got questions?" Ask "are we all aligned on the priorities?", “did I understand you correctly?” ➡️ Some people need pictures. Some need bullet points. Some need stories. 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸. ➡️ 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱. Good. If you're tired of saying it, they're probably just starting to hear it. You'll still have those moments when someone says something so completely off-base that you want to bang your head on the desk. At least, I still do. But if you keep on pushing and treat communication as something you DO on a consistent basis, rather than something you DID in the past - projects start running much smoother. 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲. Not the code, marketing campaigns, or whatever your deliverable happens to be. Welcome to the agency life. 🤝 #AgencyLife #B2B #B2BCommerce #DigitalTransformation #Ecommerce #ClientCommunication #ProjectManagement #ClientAlignment #EffectiveCommunication #Teamwork #ClientServices #CommunicationStrategy #AgencyTips #PeopleFirst #ClientRelationships #Collaboration #CommunicationSkills #ProjectSuccess #ConsistentCommunication #ClientEngagement

Early in my career, I thought more content meant more success. I’d assure clients that posting 20-30 times a month would skyrocket their revenue. But soon, I realized it wasn’t just about quantity—it was about clear communication and strategy. One time, a client was frustrated. Despite all the posts, they weren’t seeing the "$ millions $" they expected. That’s when it hit me: we hadn’t set clear expectations. Now, I make sure every client understands the strategy from day one. Here’s my approach to avoid any miscommunication: 1️⃣ Clear Expectations from the Start: I sit down with clients and lay out what social media can realistically achieve. Posting frequently won’t automatically translate to millions. It’s about quality, engagement, and targeted efforts. 2️⃣ Detailed Strategy: I provide a clear, detailed strategy tailored to their goals. This includes defining what success looks like and the metrics we’ll use to measure it. No vague promises—just concrete plans. 3️⃣ Regular Check-Ins: To ensure everyone’s on the same page, I schedule regular check-ins. We review progress, adjust strategies if needed, and address any concerns. Open communication is key. Setting these expectations has transformed client relationships. They understand the value of a strategic approach and appreciate the transparency. No more unrealistic expectations—just clear, achievable goals. In my latest video, I share tips on how to set clear expectations with your clients to ensure smooth, successful collaborations. Check it out! #ClientCommunication #MarketingStrategy #ClearExpectations #DigitalMarketing #BusinessSuccess

When I first started my business, I was thrilled to land my first few clients. 🎉 I poured my heart into my work, eager to impress. But soon, I encountered a problem I hadn't anticipated: micromanaging clients. 😅 At first, I thought I just needed to work harder or be more available. But the constant check-ins and demands for updates started to wear me down. I realized something had to change. I decided to dig deeper and get to the cause of their need to micromanage. Why did they feel the need to do it? Could I communicate better? Was there miscommunication happening? Did they have certain expectations that I wasn’t aware of? By addressing these questions, I found that many issues stemmed from unclear communication. I started providing detailed performance reports. This helped my clients feel more in the loop and less anxious about the work being done. Next, I had to check my boundaries. What was and wasn’t okay for me? I realized that without strong boundaries, my business would suffer. I started setting clear guidelines for communication, such as specific times when I was available for calls and how quickly I would respond to emails. This wasn’t easy at first. I worried that clients might not like the new boundaries. But to my surprise, many appreciated the clarity and respected my time more. They began to trust me to deliver without needing constant oversight. From my experience, I learned a few key pieces of advice for dealing with micromanaging clients: 1. Communicate Clearly: Make sure your clients understand your process and timeline. Regular updates can help them feel more secure. 2. Set Boundaries: Decide what is and isn’t acceptable for you. Communicate these boundaries clearly and stick to them. 🚧 3. Address Miscommunications: If there’s a misunderstanding, tackle it head-on. Clarify any points of confusion and ensure everyone is on the same page. 4. Understand Their Perspective: Sometimes clients micromanage because they’ve had bad experiences in the past. Show them that you’re reliable and capable. Remember, you can't build a strong business without strong boundaries. #FemaleFounders #WomenInBusiness #WomenInMarketing #ClientManagement #BusinessBoundaries #CommunicationSkills #EntrepreneurTips

One of the most underrated soft skills in business is the ability to make and keep clear agreements. At Nimbl, one of the ways we create performance is by making and keeping agreements. We define an agreement simply: we do what we say we’ll do. And when we can’t, we reset the agreement proactively. It sounds straightforward, and it is. But it’s also one of the most powerful soft skills in our industry. Technical skills are table stakes. But the ability to communicate clearly, follow through, and reset agreements sets a professional apart. It's what builds trust and creates high-performing relationships. Agreements can be specific ("Does it work for you if I send this by Tuesday at 3 p.m.") or standing (like monthly close deadlines or service scope commitments). What matters most is that we treat both with the same level of integrity. That means: Only making agreements we can see a clear path to keeping Confirming agreement before assuming alignment Keeping our agreements, or recreating them with clarity For example: “I agreed to delivering this by Thursday, but I ran into an issue that needs more time to resolve. Would that work for you if I move the delivery to Friday at noon?” It’s about communication, not perfection. When our team operates with clear agreements, we create stability, free our clients from needing to micromanage, and build lasting relationships. To provide context, this post is part of a short series on Nimbl’s client experience inputs: Responsiveness – Communicating with clarity, consistency, and ownership Agreements – Creating and keeping agreements with integrity Value – Thinking like business owners and focusing on what matters most to the client These inputs create the experience we want every client to have: stability, freedom, and growth.

Clear Communication in Client Management Managing clients isn’t just about delivering results—it’s about how well you communicate throughout the process. I’ve seen great work fall apart because of misalignment. And I’ve seen average work succeed just because expectations were crystal clear. Here’s what I’ve learned: 1. Set Expectations Early ↳ Define goals, timelines, and KPIs upfront. ↳ Clearly communicate what’s realistic—and what’s not. 2. Keep Clients in the Loop ↳ Regular updates prevent last-minute surprises. ↳ Even if results aren’t perfect, transparency builds trust. 3. Simplify Your Message ↳ Clients don’t need the full data dump—they need insights. ↳ Translate metrics into business impact. 4. Anticipate, Don’t Just React ↳ Flag potential issues before they become problems. ↳ Bring solutions, not just problems, to the table. The best client relationships aren’t just built on performance—they’re built on clarity, trust, and proactive communication. What’s one communication shift that improved your client relationships? ♻️ Share this with someone who needs to hear it!