The hardest client call goes to whoever owns the account that week
Bad results, a late launch, a client who wants to pause, a customer who is already angry. These calls decide renewals, and the person making them has usually had that exact conversation once or twice, if at all. Ebbing is role play for client success and customer service teams, with a customer who pushes back.
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Client call after two quarters of poor results, rep 3
Back to Practice
Listening to you
Mark Hollis
VP of Marketing
What has been said
You are scored on
Finds what the client is really worried about. Offers a clear way forward. Leaves the relationship stronger.
Where accounts are won and lost
Delivering bad news
Two soft quarters. A launch that slipped three weeks. How it is said matters as much as what happened, and there is no second take.
The client who wants to step back
They ask to pause or cut scope. The instinct is to defend the work. The skill is finding the real reason first, and it takes practice to hold back.
Showing results and asking for more
Strategists know the work is good. Saying so, tying it to what the client cares about and proposing the next thing is a conversation most people avoid.
Built on how your team looks after clients
Score it on your service standard
Shared playbooks cover tough client conversations and handling an upset customer. Add your own for renewals, results reviews or anything specific to how you work.
Scored against Tough client conversation - Owns the result without excusesStrong
- Finds what the client is really worried aboutCompetent
- Offers a clear way forwardCompetent
- Leaves the relationship strongerWeak
Rehearse the real account
Build the client from what you know, or draft them from the transcript of your last call. They push back where the real one does.
Drafted from last quarter’s review call
Mark Hollis
Operations director at a client two quarters behind plan
Short answers. Interrupts when he hears an excuse. Calms down when you say plainly what went wrong.
Keeps to themselves unless asked well: his own boss has asked him to look at other vendors. Compare practice with the real calls
Upload a real client call's transcript and score it on the same rubric, to see whether the calm you had in practice held up.
Skill In practice On real calls Finds what is really going on Handles pushback without pitching Agrees a clear next step Opens with a reason to talk Discovery holds up in practice and drops two levels with a real buyer. That is the next thing to assign. Get the whole team ready before renewal season
Assign the renewal conversation to everyone with a date, and see who has done it and how they did.
Assigned: Client call after two quarters of poor results2 of 4 done 
Priya N.Done, 70
Marcus R.Due Friday
Jasmine C.Done, 59- David C.Not started
Conversations client teams start with
A client who is disappointed, in a hurry, or quietly planning to leave. They answer in a real voice and react to how you handle them.
- Client call after two quarters of poor resultsMark Hollis, hard
- Telling a client their launch will be three weeks lateMark Hollis, medium
- Explaining a one-month dip to a long-term clientRenee Alvarez, easy
- These come ready to use. You can change them or build your own.
Questions people ask first
- What do people need to use it?
- A browser and a microphone. Headphones help. A camera is optional.
- How long does a rep take?
- About ten minutes for most roleplays, and the review is ready seconds after the call ends.
- Can it follow our own method?
- Yes. You write the rubric: the skills, what strong and weak look like, and how much each counts. Or start from a shared playbook and change it.
- Is it only for sales?
- No. The same thing works for managers giving hard feedback, client teams delivering bad news, and service teams with upset customers.
- Does it replace coaching from a manager?
- No. It gives people the reps so a manager's time goes to the conversations that need a person, with the scores and moments already in front of them.
- Can we build a roleplay for a specific account or person?
- Yes. Describe them in the editor, or draft them from the transcript of a real call. By default the persona gets an invented name.
What happens to your conversations
- Your organization is walled off
- People, conversations and library are kept apart from every other organization.
- You decide how long things are kept
- Set a number of days. Older conversations are removed for good. An admin can delete any single one.
- Practice is private to the team
- A learner sees their own conversations. Their managers and admins see the team's. Nobody else does.
- Real calls are text only, and off by default
- No recording is uploaded or stored for a real call, and an admin has to switch the feature on first.
Give your team the reps before the client is on the line
Tell us who you are and which conversations matter most. We will set up your first roleplays with you.
Access is by invitation while we bring on our first teams.