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Natural Consequences: The Ultimate Client Management Tool

SMACK!!! Goes the parent.

“Waaaa!” screams the child.

A common reaction when a child does something they should not have.

Imagine the child is your three-year-old who just finished a fine work of crayola art . . . on your beautiful white wall. Would you spank your child?

According to many child development experts, you shouldn’t. Punishment, they say, is a counter-productive method of teaching a child to behave appropriately. A child punished is more likely to adopt strategies to avoid punishment. These strategies could include lying, blaming, withholding, and many others that cannot but impair parent-child relationships. So what is a conscientious parent to do?

The answer is going to sound a lot like, “fix the problem, not the blame.”

Let Your Child Experience the Natural Consequences of His Actions

What would you do—if instead of your child marking the walls—you walked through the house with an open can of paint, splattering some on a wall that you were walking by? Would you smack yourself or clean the wall?

The same is true for your child. You enroll him in the repair of what he did wrong. That is the natural consequence of marking up the walls. Someone has to clean the mess. Ultimately, he will get the idea. If you are going to write on the wall, you will have to clean the wall.

The experts say that while punishment is interpreted as disapproval, natural consequences are much easier to connect directly to the inappropriate behavior. It is tangible and much more effective.

Have you ever been frustrated by your clients? Do you ever find yourself wanting to slap their hand, maybe just a little bit, to open their eyes to the problems they are working themselves into?

Helping Your Clients See What Is Real

There is a less frustrating way of helping your clients see what they need to. Just as natural consequences are an effective parenting tool, they can be highly effective for managing your clients. Your children and your clients have a common need: they both need to change some habits. Natural consequences are an excellent way of demonstrating to them why.

The difference between your child and your client is that natural consequences have a different impact. Your child has a sore arm from applying elbow grease to the wall. Your clients could suffer economically. How can your clients feel the pain without living the pain?

Apply the impact of natural consequences by developing scenarios that foretell the results of strategic decisions. Here are a few examples.

  • A Real Estate Lawyer who is working with a client identifying potential partners for a joint venture. One potential partner has a greater upside because he has extensive industry contacts, but also a significant litigation history.

    How do you apply natural consequences? Identify the risk/reward likelihood of working with the well connected, but litigious potential partner. Calculate the ratio of non-litigated with litigated land deals. Connections are great! But who wants to end up in court?
  • A Business Development Specialist working with a bank looking to increase revenue. The bank vice president wants to offer lower interest rates to customers who have their loan held at other banks, but does not want to “throw money away” by offering the same discount to current bank customers.

    How do you apply natural consequences? Perform an analysis on the likely business gained from other banks, and the loss of business from current customers who resent the preferential treatment. Then, go a step further by identifying how a customer loyalty program might not only result in a similar increase, but significantly greater word of mouth.
  • An Accountant has a high-end home remodeling contractor who always enjoys greater success when the stock market is high, but is reluctant to do other activities when the market is more bearish.

    How do you apply natural consequences? Identify the amount of time the contractor can withstand a recession. But, go one step further and identify how the contractor’s market might undertake home remodeling projects when money is tight. Can the contractor provide a service to do-it-yourself’ers?

The Gift that Keeps Giving

Natural consequences can be a highly effective tool for both children and clients. Consequences experienced are much less likely to result in repeated mistakes.

When your child is applying elbow grease to the wall to clean up his crayon masterpiece, he will think twice before using the wall again. With your clients, you have to make the projected consequences as realistic and vivid as possible. The more vivid the experience, and the better the data, the better the lesson will take.

Happy Client Retaining,

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© 2004-2007 Jeff Simon Consulting. All Rights Reserved. Wouldn't you love to peer into your client's head and know what they are thinking and feeling? Could you have better success at keeping and choosing your best clients if you could decode their behavior? Check out the Happy Clients Newsletter at: www.happyclientsnewsletter.com.

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