Speaker 1 (00:03):
We all have that traumatic memory burned into our brain.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
<laugh>. All right, it wasn’t so traumatic. Oh, it was
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Traumatic. All right, so we are live. We fixing that. Go for it. It
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Wouldn’t have been for the spot. It would’ve been fine.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
<laugh> would’ve been for the half gallon of Earl on, on the carpet. <laugh>
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Earl.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
That’s right. Dang it. Earl
Speaker 3 (00:31):
<laugh>. I just can’t get w Earl. Dang it. Earl my finger. My dang Spanky finger <laugh>. You know, really a personal check. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That dude was hilarious. I can’t remember his name, but man, what a character. All right, so here we are, episode 27. Hope you all had a good laugh including all you General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So today’s show, we’re gonna circle back around to those tough conversations that we talked about on last week’s show, and we’re gonna give you a couple of key ways that those tough conversations can actually strengthen the relationships of the key players you’re involved with. You failed the K-Cup. Let’s jump in.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Hey, welcome back to the K-Cup episode 27. In this week, we’re going to, we’re gonna jump back into this conversation that we had last week in episode 26 about difficult client conversations. Uh, we, last week we talked about, you know, the high cost of not having, uh, those difficult client conversations when you need to, the high cost of, uh, your, you know, your reputation, uh, how you can lose respect. And then at the same time, we talked about, um, you know, how it can affect your bottom line to the point where it actually threatens, uh, your ability to keep your, your doors open in your business. So, but this week we wanted to return and, and touch on one more point, uh, connected to this, you know, difficult client conversation subject, and that being of how to turn these difficult client conversations into real relationship strengtheners. Another great lesson for General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So we’re gonna talk about how proper communication actually builds trust and can help develop long-term partnerships with clients. Instead of, you know, everybody leaving the project with a bad taste in their mouth, they can actually turn this into a situation where, uh, both parties are willing to do business with each other for years to come. So, welcome back, John. Uh, obviously we want to tap into your, uh, experience again this week discussing, uh, difficult client conversations. Uh, we know last week we talked about some real world situations that, uh, are common in the construction industry that you’re just gonna face and probably in a lot of businesses. But, you know, we probably have more frequent opportunities in construction ’cause there’s so many moving pieces. And, uh, but we also know that, uh, over the years, and, and I’ve witnessed this myself, we’ve been able to turn some of these difficult situations into actual, you know, relationship builders to where, uh, we still do business with some of those clients today that we, you know, during projects in the past, we just had some challenges that had to be overcome. But we did that through transparency, through honesty, you know, being, being truthful. So let’s talk about that because this really kind of puts a positive spin on, on the difficult conversation thing and, uh, and leaves things in a positive light. So let’s, let’s talk about the advantage of being transparent from, from the get go with a, with a project. Uh, share some thoughts with us about that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah. So you just used the word truthful. A lot of times being transparent means telling the truth. And, you know, if you tell the truth early and often, it’s always gonna serve you well. That’s right. Uh, and, you know, transparency is not just about truth, but that’s a big part of it. Uh, so being truthful all the time, it is, it’s always gonna serve you well, and we’ve seen that time and time again. Um, but, but then there’s other times that just, you know, transparency’s not always about trying to hide the truth. There’s just certain facts that sometimes aren’t easy to talk about. And that’s what we’ve, that’s right. That’s what we’ve, that’s what this whole, you know, podcast has been about. Yeah. Uh, but being transparent and, and being truthful and, and sharing, you know, key information, whether it’s good or bad, is always gonna serve you well when you get it out early and get it out, you know, ahead of the issue, ahead of it being a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
For sure. Uh, and you know, we’ve, we’ve talked about a number of, of different, uh, you know, problems if you will, or tough conversations. I mean, if a project’s gonna be late, that’s always a tough conversation. Yeah. Uh, if, if there’s, you know, cost that you know, wasn’t, uh, intended to be, that’s always gonna be a difficult conversation for sure. Uh, you know, anytime something’s not going exactly the plan, that’s, there’s always gonna be a tough conversation around it. That’s right. But if you get out in front of it, and if you, if you get that out in the open early, uh, it’s always gonna serve you well. And you know, I can think of a few instances, you know, you know, one, if we’re dealing with somebody that that’s trying to move into a new space and maybe they’re leasing a space, they’ve purchased a building, you know, for their own company or whatever, you know, we know a few months in advance that we’re not gonna make the schedule.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I mean, we need to get that information out there so that they can make plans for where they’re at. Right. And, and a lot of times it’s gonna be as simple as you kind of let ’em know there’s some disappointment, but, you know, they may have a response, look, but we’re month to month anyway, we can give our landowner a little bit of notice that we’re gonna need another month or two here Yeah. Is not gonna be a big issue to where if we waited to the end Yeah. To tell ’em that. And, you know, at this point maybe the space is leased and, and now they’re kind of outta options. Yeah. You know, another one that I can think of is really a big deal that you don’t think about as often is the person that we’re working with may actually not be the person. That’s a great point, hope ya caught that General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
They may have a boss that they’re answering to, or That’s right. Uh, you know, a higher up and the quicker they could relay that information to their boss, it would look a lot better on them. Exactly. Uh, and, and they take that stuff serious because I mean, obviously everybody’s wanting to be the best employee, the best person you could be. Sure. Most people are looking to grow and, and, and move up the ladder. Yeah. And, uh, you know, that kind of could give somebody a black eye in the sense if, uh, if they don’t have this information until the end of the day. And, and that can really kind of tarnish relationship. I mean, if that client, if that’s a person that we are working with that may have a lot of work, and all of a sudden we become a professional obstacle for ’em, and then that’s kind of a problem.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Exactly. But if, if we can get ’em that information early and, and they can share that information early and, and it’s, you know, it goes over a lot better, uh, because they have time to prepare for that, that, you know, obstacle or whatever it is, you know, because the scenarios could be endless. Yeah. But, but the point is they would have time to plan for that and, uh, and, and not kind of blindside, you know, their, their leader or their higher up, you know, also, so Yeah. Uh, that’s just two quick examples that I can, that I can think of right off that we’ve kinda seen, uh, you know, we, we’ve worked with plenty of clients under the end users, but time and time again. And, and I think that that one is the more stressful is when we’re working with somebody who has to answer to somebody else. Yeah. Uh, that I think that that’s when it really can become a problem more so than dealing with the end user. So yeah, just always, always important to know who you know, who you’re working with and the circumstances surrounding those, those particular people. Uh, but at the end of the day, just transparency, honesty, getting, getting that tough conversation stuff out there early, it’s always gonna serve you well and it’s, it’s always, it’s the right move every time.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah. Uh, I won’t go into deep detail on this, but it does remind me of a, of a, you know, project that we talked about a little bit yesterday. And that point that you made, you know, the, the person who was running the project for the entity that we were performing for, you know, wasn’t the top dog, although he was a very high, high placed individual in the organization. He answered the actual, uh, politicians, local politicians. Yeah. So he had a lot of pressure on him for this project to go well and stuff. And, and the project, uh, because of its nature did have some, uh, major challenges mm-hmm <affirmative>. And some, uh, huge difficulties associated with it. And there was a lot of things that were just unknowns until we got into the project. And, uh, the building that we were working on was a very old building that, and the, the part of the building that we were trying to, uh, utilize had been, you know, was a concrete structure that had been poured back in the day it was so long ago that they were still using, you know, dimensional lumber is form boards back then. and I’m sure thee are some General Contractors Baton Rouge that have had to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So it was a lot of, you know, inconsistencies in the, in the structure and stuff like that. So, but we were very diligent about keeping that person informed. And it, and it really was challenging on our part because, you know, Bobby and I constantly felt like we were having to disappoint this person with, with the news that we were getting from the subcontractors and, and vendors that we were working with on the project, but we also felt very strongly that we had to keep this person informed because we, one, we really had grown to, like the person we had developed a great relationship with him. And two, we didn’t want him to be in the dark and do like what you say, have his superiors feel like, well, you’re, you’re not, you don’t even have your finger on the pulse of this thing. You’re not keeping us informed. Right. And so, uh, anyways, we were, we just felt compelled to really, you know, keep him informed of every twist and turn, and there were a lot of ’em. But like you said, at the end of the day, that transparency, that being truthful and honest, that goes a long way even when there’s problems.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, no, that’s a great example of, of one that, you know, it is just, it’s key to, to keeping that person informed because they’re answering to a lot of other people. Yeah. Uh, and that really puts a lot of pressure on them, which, you know, pressure bust pipes. Right. So yeah. Anytime somebody’s under that amount of pressure, uh, uh, you know, a situation that’s not a huge problem can become a huge problem. Right. Specifically if that information’s not, you know, you know, not given early and, and not explained and, and, you know, just not given the right tools, uh, early on to, to be able to have that discussion with their, their higher ups or whatever. That’s right. And when we’re talking with the person where, you know, the buck stops with them, yeah. It can be, there still can be a bad situation, but there’s not near but near the pressure on that person because they make the call. They don’t have, they’re not answering to anybody. Exactly. So that’s a great example, uh, of, of exactly what I was talking about actually. Sure and another great answer for General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah. So
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Do you have a construction project but you just don’t know where to begin? Let us show you the steps that are necessary to make your project a reality. I’m John Kelly with Kelly Construction Group, and I wanted to jump in here for just a second and let you guys know that here at Kelly Construction, we’re more than just a builder. We’re your one stop solution. We wanna help you with planning, design, permitting, and construction. If this sounds like a solution, you need reach out to us today. We’ve left the links in the show notes, set up a call. Now let’s get back to today’s show.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So, um, let’s talk about this, this next point then about, you know, this is another part of being able to turn difficult conversations into relationship builders instead of something that damages relationships. And, uh, it is this point that we’re gonna discuss now is really in about technique, about how you approach difficult situations. And, uh, one example would be like you, you know, you’re in the, you’re in the middle of a, of a, uh, project and you get to a, a place where you discover that, you know, say for example, the drawings, the drawings just aren’t accurate. They’re just not, you know, they look great on paper necessarily in this, in this particular situation. But when you, when you’re out in the field and you’re trying to apply it to the actual project, that that’s just not coming together and you’re, you’re seeing issues constantly that need to be looked at, you know, that could turn into a situation where, you know, you’re, you know, that you’re losing productivity.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You know, you got guys on the job that are costing you, you know, pretty penny, and they’re not being productive. They’re not producing because the plans aren’t clear at that point. It could be very easy for someone just to get mad and lose their temper and, and, you know, call the architecture the engineer and just, you know, read ’em the riot act. You know, you’re drawings, you know, they’re costing me money. I want to be reimbursed, you know, you’re getting back charged for this and all that stuff, you know, but, uh, we’re talking about how, how can you take these difficult conversations and actually strengthen a relationship. So tell us a little bit about how, you know, the smart way to go about dealing with a situation like this. ’cause this isn’t really uncommon, you know, in, in construction, we, we run into, you know, things all the time when it comes to drawings and, and applying ’em in the field. It’s just the nature of the beast. It happens. But tell us how, how you might deal with this and, and where it can turn out with a, a good result instead of something bad. General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I mean, when I think about that, I mean, I think the biggest thing in my mind is, is like, you know, don’t be so quick to point the blame. Don’t, don’t be so quick to assign this problem to somebody. Yeah. You know, like, let’s, let’s see what the problem is and, and let’s try to make it a team approach to solving this problem. Yeah. And e even though, you know, even if it’s not our problem, um, you know, let’s put ourself in the middle of it with the architect in that instant that, that you talked about. You know, maybe, maybe the drawings aren’t right. Uh, or there’s something that’s incorrect that’s, that’s given us heartburn. You know, how can we, how can we jump into the middle of that problem of the architect, not just say, Hey man, your drawings are wrong. You know, this is a change order, this is whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. Like, let’s approach it in a, in a manner that, you know, this is not gonna work, but let’s solve this as a team. Like, what can we do to have minimal cost? What can we do? You know, let’s both give a little bit, let’s both find a solution that that works for everybody. Yeah. Have a team approach to solving a problem instead of just pointing the finger and, and all of a sudden there’s gonna be, you know, all these additional calls due to that. Yeah. Uh, and I think that, you know, that’s, that’s for the case that, that you brought up. Uh, but there’s, there’s a lot of scenarios, uh, you know, that we can talk about. You know, maybe we missed a scope, maybe a subcontractor missed a scope. Uh, you know, how can we, how can we find a good solution, you know, specifically like subcontractors that, I mean, we want our subcontractors to be our partners.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
We want to be working with ’em on another job and another job. So yeah. Is there a way that we can find a, a missed scope and, and, you know, work it out between us where maybe they’re not taking a full hit, uh, or, or whatever the solution is, but, but just don’t point it out and say, Hey guys, you missed this scope, it’s all yours. And, and sometimes that’s the answer. And, and when it is, the subcontractor usually knows, and it is not an issue. But if it’s a gray area specifically, like, let’s find some common ground, let’s see what we can do to work it out. Yeah. Knowing that we’re gonna be doing this for years to come, and we’re gonna be partners and we’re gonna work it out. I mean, that’s, that’s really our approach all the time. Yeah. Uh, so I think the biggest thing that I’ve, I would say, you know, in this, in this portion is just don’t be so quick to point the blame on somebody. Don’t be so quick to say, Hey, this is your problem. Yeah. And, and act like we’re clear of it. Uh, even if we should be, I mean, I think that, you know, there’s plenty of times where I feel like for sure we should be completely clear the problem, but, but yeah. We kind of find ourselves knee deep in it just trying to help Yes. Work it out. You know,
Speaker 1 (16:30):
That’s part of being partners taking on some of that. Yeah. And I think that weight that may not be yours,
Speaker 2 (16:34):
<laugh>, I think that goes a long way. Uh, yeah. At the end of the day, where are the fault lies? It, it usually ends up becoming apparent without us having to point it out or Yeah. Call it out or whatever. Sure. Yeah. And just that move right there causes way less heartache and way less pain. Absolutely. Uh, and, and usually that person’s willing to take the brunt of the responsibility too, in that, in that instance, when you, when you have it just going out there and, you know, blasted on and Yeah. Said they were wrong and said they were whatever. Yeah. Uh, so, so that’s, that’s, uh, I think that’s what I would say is, is just don’t be quick to point the blame, be quicker to try to find a solution to the problem. Yeah. And, and, and everything else kind of works itself out. and also, General Contractors Baton Rouge.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah. That reminds me of a meme I saw a while back, and it was, it was on a post talking about assigning blame, like kind of what you’re talking about, someone being quick to sign blame. And the meme said, uh, you may be right 99% of the time, but you’re still wrong a hundred percent of the time. And the point was, is that in the act of demonstrating your rightness and you’re the not the one that made the mistake, you just destroyed the chance of, like you’re saying, uh, creating a partnership or a collaboration where you’re gonna find a solution and take care of it. So now, yeah, you might be right, but you still have the problem and no one’s gonna work with you to solve that problem. So it’s kind of really an exercise of utility proven that you’re right. Right. Anyways, I thought that was kind of interesting and it kind of, you know, applies to what we’re talking about right now.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It’s being Right. Really doesn’t have nothing to do with it. It’s about finding a solution that everyone can work with Right. And be successful in the end. And ultimately, and we never want to forget this point. Ultimately it’s the, the goal of everyone should be to deliver that project to the project owner. ’cause they’re the one paying for it. So, right. Ultimately, that should be our, our goal in, in all the different players, whether architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, that we all should be willing to do what we have to do as a team to get that accomplished. So. Right. All right. So anyways, this has been a pretty positive, any, any closing points you want to, uh, make on this subject of, you know, creating partnerships through, you know, having these difficult conversations and doing it in a proper way?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the tone of this, this podcast has been towards, you know, your, your owners or, or your architects or that kind of thing. But you know, this transparency in this, in this, uh, you know, I guess problem solving, um, not pointing the finger that, that, that kind of goes to go against, you know, or goes for every aspect of the business. I mean, you know, this is for your subcontractors, this is for your vendors. Sure. I mean, this is actually for your own team members, uh, you know, even can within the company, that transparency and, and this, this, you know, this approach to solving problems gonna serve you very well, uh, in all aspects of the business. So I think it’s, it’s key to just have that transparency and that problem solving ability kind of across the board.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah. Yeah. I agree a hundred percent. That’s a great, a great culture to develop in your team. Uh, you know, that they approach their job having the understanding that your expectation of them is that they’re gonna be transparent and honest and truthful. So we can eliminate that as a layer of problem, which helps you get to the real problem quicker and fix it, you know? Right. And then it just complicates things.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And then, like, you know, basically how you started off is, you know, solving, you know, solving the problems are, are, you know, having this communication, creating strong relationships. And that’s exactly what happens. I mean, yeah, I know within our company, we we’re all, you know, very close knit, and we do have some tough conversations, and we do have hard conversations from time to time, but at the end of the day, it just, it pulls us together. It makes us stronger. That’s right. And, you know, that’s the same way it, it does with subcontractors and, and owners and all the people that we work with. So yeah. Really, really critical couple pieces to, to really strengthen this relationships.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That’s right. All right, well, I guess that’s gonna wrap it up then. Uh, appreciate you, uh, sharing your insight on these two points. Uh, hopefully everyone listening today is, is getting some value out of this. Uh, you know, we’re gonna call this part two of our difficult conversations, uh, little mini series that we just kind of made impromptu, but we just felt compelled to come back and share this positive aspect, uh, you know, of having difficult client conversations and using them to build and strengthen relationships and, and show, uh, really another side of, of your ability as a, you know, a player in this, uh, industry to be able to be a, a, a solution finder and, uh, and not someone that’s, that causes problems for, for other people that do business with them. So anyways, hopefully you got some value out of this. Uh, please come back and see us next week where we’ll have some more, uh, you know, great, uh, points to discuss and, uh, more value for you.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
But we, we would like you to, uh, subscribe to the podcast if you would. Uh, subscriptions is what helps the podcast get pushed out to more people. And our goal really is to build a community around, uh, this industry, the commercial industry, which we know covers commercial real estate, commercial lending, architects, engineers, and contractors of all sorts, subcontractors, trades, tradesmen, and, uh, general contractors. So, uh, help us out with that by just hitting that subscribe button and, uh, give us a thumbs up and, uh, come back and see us again. That’s it. Adios. That’s all. That’s all she wrote. <laugh>. Goodbye. Goodbye.