Project Managers: Your New Weekly Client Call Agenda
Start giving meaningful updates to your clients.
Do you have an endless, repetitive, or seemingly pointless call every week with your client about their project? Do they meet you with anger, confusion and misalignment? Are you worried about being unprepared for their questions, unsure how to convey action items, and nervous about sharing meaningful and transparent updates? Let’s solve this.
Before Your Meeting
It’s crucial to have an in-depth understanding of your client’s project prior to meeting with them. This includes the good and the bad. Understand who is involved and where the project stands. Are there clear plans or promises made? What dates, deadlines, or milestones need to be discussed? Are there key topics or aspects that have more questions or urgency than others? Write it all down. The key to a great client call is transparency. Don’t let critical details slip through the cracks of misinterpretation. Write. Everything. Down.
You can keep it in a google doc, in confluence, or even a wipe board/notepad. The location doesn’t matter, as long as you have a place to reference and keep notes during your call. Always make sure these notes are screen shared or otherwise edited live for complete visibility to ensure corrections and expectations are aligned. The target state for projects should be to screen share right out of your management software, such as Jira, Trello, or Monday.
Understand Your Client’s Desired Outcome
What is the purpose of your call? What is your client looking to gain? Do they need an update on a certain task, deadline, or milestone? Do they want to review the budget, resources, or hours? Do they need to approve timesheets, review tasks, or share feedback? Understand what they gain, and what you need as well in order to make the call productive. If you or your client find yourselves waiting on feedback or updates from each other, start there on every call.
Keep It Simple
If you can’t gather enough details from the project and there aren’t any urgent talking points, keep it simple. Highlight what was recently completed and what’s up next and see if there is anything to discuss or change. If not, you’re in a great spot! Keep focusing on work that comes next and keep planning for future projects.
The above is often the outlier. So how do you keep it simple when it feels like there is so much information to share? Keep it to these three talking points:
- Where are we currently? Review the roadmap, timeline, milestone, or any other project plans from previous to current.
- Where are we stuck? Do we have issues that need to be addressed? Are we missing feedback or approvals?
- What’s next? How can we continue or get back on track? Are there any new requests or questions that need to be reviewed?
Stay Action-Item Oriented
With every exchange of information, make sure it has a result. That result can simply be the exchange of information, but make sure that with requests, questions, or tasks, action items are clearly stated with the owner and timeline affiliated appropriately. This can include a to-do list for opening support tickets, writing emails, reviewing team availability, etc. Ensure that this action plan also comes with a follow-up plans to cross off each item.
Avoid On-The-Spot Answers
Don’t be afraid to use the classic ‘circle-back’ line with your client. Never make promises on behalf of a team or even yourself that you cannot actually accomplish. Fast answers aren’t always good ones. As long as you can get those answers to your client within your typical SLA, don’t try to cram it in on the call.
Make Plans, Not Promises
If your client requests a new task, project, or change, don’t just say yes! Make a plan to scope out the request, small or big, to avoid getting stuck with an endless influx of work without details or priorities.
Speak Honestly
There’s a misconception in management that lip service is ideal. Clients just want to know what’s going on with their project. You can deliver information as-is, good or bad, so long as it is the truth. It may seem simple to tell your client the project is done if it’s almost done, however if the last piece has an issue, you’re in hot water. It’s better to deal with disappointment and make a plan to regroup rather than mitigate the damage of broken trust between you and your client.
Still struggling on your client calls?
You’re probably not to blame. Comment below — let’s chat.
