I'm Sorry, but "No"

How to Say No to Clients

If you are responsible for building and maintaining client relationships, you surely have faced the challenge of pushing back or saying no to a client.

Our How to Say No to Clients workshop provides anyone involved with client relationships the skills needed to push back against clients while protecting those critical business relationships. Participants learn a simple yet powerful framework for addressing a variety of client challenges including scope creep, untenable requests, unmet expectations, and other situations that can make one feel that they must choose between conceding or risking the relationship.

Theories come alive during fun, interactive exercises, including customized role-play simulations that capture the specific challenges participants face in their professional roles.

They walk away with a skill set that they can use immediately, and that can instantly improve your business.

Learning Objectives:

• Tackle difficult conversations with clients
• Reduce unwarranted concessions
• Improve forward looking relationships with clients
• Transition tense situations into constructive opportunities for relationship building
• Diffuse hostility and relational stresses

Learning Components:

• Getting to the root of the difference
• Advocating without provoking
• Understanding their interests
• Demonstrating understanding and empathy to advance the conversation and relationship
• Raising awareness about our biased analyses
• Shifting from seductive mental shortcuts to constructive analytic pathways

Hear What Corporate Leaders Think about Their Communication Workshop Experience

We invite you to explore our other communication skills workshops to find the one that best meets your training needs:

• Having Challenging Conversations workshops are the perfect solution for anyone who struggles with or avoids difficult conversations




• Performance Reviews 2.0 workshops help professionals at all levels of management deliver even the most critical evaluations to their staff




• How to Receive Feedback workshops teaches professionals at all levels of the organization how to see criticism in a positive light. They also learn essential skills for eliciting feedback and critical information that they can use to further their development and improve their job performance.


• Active Listening workshops help participants develop active listening skills to better process information being shared by others




• Managing Up workshops help participants engage and influence their supervisors on matters on which they might not be in agreement, as well as prepares them to provide critical
feedback to their supervisors



• Cross Cultural Communication workshops help professionals communicate across cultures and avoid confusion, misunderstanding, and other potential damage to relationships with colleagues, clients, and other business partners



• Cross-Generational Communication workshops help professionals communicate across generations and avoid confusion, misunderstanding, and other potential damage to relationships with colleagues, clients, and other business partners



• Executive Presence: Connecting with an Audience workshops teach presenters how to connect with their audience such that their message is readily understood, welcomed, and remembered




• Emotional Intelligence and Communication workshops helps develop participants’ emotional intelligence – their ability to identify, evaluate, and influence the emotions of the various parties involved in a dynamic



We also design and deliver fully-customized communication skills workshops that target your unique areas of focus and specific audience needs. Please contact us at (212) 391-8100 to learn more!