As a small business owner and entrepreneur, I have literally 100’s of conversations with clients and potential clients a week. So many in fact, that I’ve found I can typically anticipate almost every question or inquiry that is coming next. However, there are those times when a prospect or a customer throws something at me that makes my stomach drop a little bit. You know those questions. The ones that within the first few words send your mind into warp drive figuring out an appropriate response or at least some way to buy yourself a few more seconds to come up with something to say.
You have several options. Obviously, the first one that comes to mind is make something up…anything! Although that might make your life easier for the remaining moments of the conversation, I would definitely advise against it. More often than not, you will just be causing yourself hours and hours, possibly days and days of headaches, and inevitably a very awkward follow-up conversation.
No, instead I suggest you use what I have found to be a surprisingly powerful phrase…
“I don’t know.”
Sure, you can finesse the wording a bit. I would highly recommend that you do! There are endless options:
- “I’ll have to check on that.”
- “Off the top of my head, I’m not positive.”
- “I will research that now and get back to you right away.” -my personal favorite
I know how uncomfortable it can be to reveal to anyone, especially people you are trying to win over, that you are not perfect and all-knowing. But I’ll let you in on a secret, no one is!
What I’ve found particularly interesting is the amount of respect you can garner by simply admitting that you’re not sure. In fact, I’ve actually had clients and potential clients who turned into clients thank me for being honest with them and not potentially misleading or flat out lying to them. They trusted my work more knowing that I was not afraid to ask questions or put my pride aside to make sure the job is done correctly.
You might be able to bluff your way through any conversation, but I guarantee your life will be much less stressful if you are willing to put down your guard a bit!
In any relationship, and even more so those business relationships that are completely virtual like most of mine, integrity is a key to building long lasting partnerships and lifelong customers!
What are your favorite power phrases? How do you deal with “I don’t know” moments? I’d love to hear other people’s experiences.
7 Comments
That is so true : “What I’ve found particularly interesting is the amount of respect you can garner by simply admitting that you’re not sure”
I remembered when I was managing a computer school franchise and this was the phrase that brought repeated customers : ““I will research that now and get back to you right away.” -my personal favorite.”
Jamy from seaykopiitiam dot com
Hi Jamy, it’s amazing how much trust and loyalty those simple words can bring!
I couldn’t agree more Dana. I have also learned that adding an introspective pause before saying “I don’t know” while looking directly into their eyes transmits great sincerity, garnering that respect that Jamy mentioned. Good post!
Thanks Daniel! I agree with you. I think for me that introspective pause happens naturally as my brain is reeling trying to come up with the info!
While I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, my personal phrase is actually “I don’t know”. I start with that and then make absolutely sure I follow-up by looking into the issue and finding solutions etc. That actually rewards my r/s with clients much more and they don’t even remember the “I don’t know”s.
Hi YC, I can see that simply using “I don’t know” might be an even better option. Although, all the different variations pretty much mean the same thing, sometimes the simplest, most honest answer is definitely refreshing to hear
I had my moments of “I don’t know” too. My client wants my honest answer but they also like to have a solution to their problems. My next statement to “I don’t know” is usually “But, I’ll find it out for you”.