Driving business growth with client leadership skills

We prevented over-servicing our client by finding a win-win solution.

We’d been stuck in a cycle of doing tasks that seemed simple – but were time-consuming and under-appreciated.

It happened again recently – but this time, we responded differently.

Instead of responding with a people-pleasing “No problem” (followed by sighs behind the screen), we used one of the Team Sterka frameworks. We found a win-win that delivered value in a fraction of the time.

The client was really pleased. The solution meant we could use our billable time more effectively – while upskilling their team to save time down the line.

We turned a difficult client relationship around by changing how we communicate.

Our client is blunt, time-poor and doesn’t do chats or niceties. It was knocking our confidence and making every interaction feel tense.

Team Sterka helped us understand her communication style – and importantly, change ours. We now keep things efficient, direct and to-the-point.

We’ve also stopped taking it personally when she gives blunt feedback or asserts her authority.

The change has paid off. We’re more confident, more in control – and the relationship is finally moving in the right direction.

Our engineer turned around a client meeting that kicked off – all by himself.

He was presenting his work. The client’s response was, “I hate it… it’s unusable… stop everything!”

The Team Sterka training kicked in. Our engineer kept calm, asked the right questions and uncovered the real issue – the board was used to a different format.

He quickly proposed an alternative that hit the mark.

Previously, this would have sprialled into a fight, an over-spec’d solution or over-servicing (or all three).

Instead, we had a happy client and got paid properly for the extra work.

All of this was handled by someone still early in their career – and far more comfortable immersed in tech than with tricky clients.

We diffused a difficult situation and got the client to be happy again.

The client stopped the meeting after one slide: “This isn’t what I asked for.” I’d spent hours on it – and felt crushed.

Instead of pushing on, I paused and used my Team Sterka skills. I let her talk, listened properly and asked questions to understand what was really going on.

Once she’d finished, I played her points back – showing I’d listened and understood. After some nodding and empathy, the client was more positive.

A week later, we presented the revised work shaped around her feedback and frustrations. This time, she was delighted.

The training enabled us to diffuse a difficult meeting and adapt to the client’s communication style.