Woohoo!

wandajune6

I have a client who hasn't warmed up to me. We haven't met in person but I'm knee-deep in her implementation and I'll be working with her for years to come. She doesn't hate me, she just doesn't seem to want to spend any time talking to me. I wouldn't normally care but as we're hoping this client will open up many doors for us, the more they love us, the better. I've always had an easy time building a rapport with clients but have been failing with her.

I mentioned this to a coworker who gave me an idea- when we did our 30 seconds of polite chitchat at the beginning of our call, I forced in a comment about wedding planning. While I'm someone who doesn't like to mix business with my personal life, this was a calculated move- that paid off! She's been helping her daughter plan her wedding and was super-excited to talk about this. In the hour since we spoke, I've gotten a bunch of wedding articles emailed to me!

Now I only need to get her to focus on the business at hand again...

(For the record, I'm 1/3rd of an early-stage all-woman tech company. Our fearless leader used to be a wedding planner and my co-worker's son just got married so wedding talk comes up somewhat frequently over lunch. In other circumstances, I would be much more discreet!)

JCbride2015

That's great!  Of all random things, this helped me connect with an older male partner at my work, too.  He's planning his daughter's wedding, saw my e-ring, and started asking me questions.

wandajune6

It's such a help! I never see my clients face-to-face so it's so helpful whenever we can create a bond!

HisGirlFriday13

Hey, you know what, whatever makes someone open up to you is fabulous.

I used to be a reporter, and I had to cover a double-murder-suicide. None of the neighbours would talk. 

I struck up a conversation with one of them about this rusty old pick-up truck that he was rebuilding. We traded stories about cars, and I told him how my Daddy had made me learn to drive stick on a steep hill in my hometown, and how in high school he wouldn't let me date any boys who couldn't drive stick.

That man ended up talking to me, on the record, and gave me all kinds of background information. He let our photographer go up in his backyard to take photos, and we were the only organisation with photos because of that. 

Cookie Pusher

One of the AVPs at my company suddenly thought I was fabulous when she found out I was planning a wedding. We would chitchat about it on the phone when working on finance stuff (our system can be slow, causing a bit of lag between actions). I look and sound really young, and I'm not sure she took me seriously until she saw how conscientious and serious I've been about planning a cost-effective yet etiquette-approved wedding. Hey, whatever it takes to stop getting snarky emails telling me things in the database (that I didn't change) were wrong!

wandajune6

@HisGirl- that's great! Your dad also sounds pretty fabulous! I usually avoid sharing a ton of personal information but I'm starting to use what works for me...

@Cookie_Pusher- that's fabulous! Use what you can!
If it helps- I worked for my now-boss back at another company a decade ago. I was very young and sometimes not taken seriously (a very high-stress startup and I burst into tears on the phone a few times). When she started her own company years later, I was the first person she brought on. I was always self-conscious too but sometimes it matters a lot less than we think!