The conversation about what could go wrong, held before it does

5 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

Suppliers avoid this conversation because raising problems feels like introducing doubt. The buyer is already having it. They are imagining the delays, the discoveries, the extra cost and the mess, based on whatever they have heard or experienced, and the version in their head is usually worse and less manageable than the truth.

Having it deliberately therefore removes doubt rather than creating it. It also does something a competitor who avoided the subject cannot: it demonstrates that you have handled these situations before and have a process for them, which is precisely what somebody wants to know before letting a supplier begin.

1. The conversation about what could go wrong is happening anyway

The reframing.

The buyer is already imagining it. Raising it means the version they end up with is accurate and comes with a remedy, rather than being assembled from a neighbour's story. You are replacing a vague fear with a manageable list.

2. Name the two or three that actually occur

The scoping.

Not everything conceivable. The realistic ones in your kind of work: a discovery on opening up, a supply delay, weather, an access problem. Specificity is what makes it credible. Your own job history tells you which three these are.

3. Explain the process rather than promising it will not happen

The substance.

What you do when it occurs, who decides, how it affects cost and timing. A process is reassuring; a promise that nothing will go wrong is not believed by anybody experienced. Saying that you stop, explain and agree before proceeding answers most of it.

4. Be explicit about who bears the cost

The part buyers most want answered.

Which situations are included, which become variations, and how a variation is agreed before work continues. This is the question behind most of their anxiety. Answering it unprompted is unusual and disarming.

5. Have it before the quote, not during the work

The timing.

Raised during the sale it is professionalism. Raised when the problem occurs it looks like an excuse, however true it is. The same words carry opposite meanings depending on when they are said.

6. Put it in writing

The follow-through.

A short section in the quote covering assumptions and what happens if they do not hold. This is where a dispute is prevented, months before it would have arisen. It is also the section a buyer rereads if something does occur.

7. Expect it to help rather than hurt

The counter-intuitive result.

Buyers consistently respond well to a supplier who raises this. It is unusual, it signals experience, and it addresses the fear they were not going to voice. Very few competitors will have done it.

8. Do not overdo it

The balance.

A long recitation of everything that could go wrong is alarming rather than reassuring. Two or three, briefly, with the process, is the right proportion.

9. Follow it during the work

The credibility test.

If you described a process for handling discoveries and then do not follow it, the conversation made things worse. Doing what you said is what converts it into trust.

Be careful about how any of this is expressed contractually. Assumptions, exclusions and variation procedures have legal effect, requirements differ by jurisdiction and by whether the customer is a consumer, and the written version should be prepared properly rather than improvised.

Conclusion

Raise it deliberately, because the buyer is already imagining a worse version.

Name the two or three problems that genuinely occur in your work, explain the process you follow rather than promising nothing will happen, be explicit about who bears the cost in each case, have the conversation before the quote rather than during the job, put the assumptions and variation process in writing, keep it brief enough to reassure rather than alarm, and then follow exactly the process you described.