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How do you rehearse a client asking for more?

The hardest sentence in advisory work is the polite one that does not promise. June Okafor on the firm's practice scenarios for scope, terms and staffing requests, and the five things a good answer always contains.

You rehearse a client asking for more by practising the conversation before it happens, against a written rubric, with scenarios drawn from the firm's real engagement terms. Larkspur & Vance uses a published rubric called Scoping a client engagement call with three authored scenarios: a Halden Foods director wanting extra modelling before the board call, Orrin Marine asking whether two more weeks of testing can be added, and Halden finance asking for a different payment period. A good answer acknowledges the goal, cites the signed terms, checks the staffing plan, routes a written change, and keeps each client's facts inside its matter.

June Okafor · Practice Manager · · 4 min read

Last updated

Why rehearse at all?

Because the request always arrives when the associate is least ready for it: on a call, from someone senior, with a deadline attached. Knowing the method is not the same as saying it out loud under that pressure. Rehearsal turns a rule an associate can recite into a sentence they can actually deliver.

What does the rubric ask for?

Five things, and every scenario is marked against all five.

  1. Acknowledge the client's goal and cite the deliverables and exclusions in the signed engagement letter.
  2. Name the engagement-specific fee basis, deposit and payment terms without substituting remembered defaults.
  3. Check roles, allocations and duration in the statement of work before promising capacity.
  4. Route an expanded request through a written change and close with an owner, next step and date.
  5. Keep each client's facts within its matter team and distinguish verified source text from interpretation.

The rubric is published inside the firm, so an associate can read exactly what they are being judged on before they start.

What are the three scenarios?

Extra modelling before the board call. The Halden Foods director wants an additional equipment model. The signed letter covers a schedule review, an advisory memo and one preparation call. The associate acknowledges the need, identifies the proposed change and asks Rohan Mehta and Harriet Larkspur for approval before making a promise.

Can we add two weeks of testing? Orrin Marine asks for extra controls testing. The statement of work allocates one partner 10%, one senior 40%, two associates 60%, for 9 weeks. The associate explains the capacity check I must make and the written change required before accepting an extension. And they do it without disclosing anything about Halden's staffing or research, because the scenario is in the Orrin lane.

Finance asks for the standard terms. Halden finance asks whether the invoice can use net 30. The engagement letter says fixed fee, deposit 25% on signature, net 21. The associate names the signed terms, records the request and routes any proposed amendment for approval.

Why these three?

Because between them they cover scope, capacity and terms, which are the three places a request for more actually lands. Each scenario is built from the firm's own fictional engagement documents, so the associate is citing terms they can go and read afterwards.

How is the rehearsal run?

In the firm's workspace, as a conversation with a client persona that stays in character and pushes back the way a real director or finance lead would. The practice side of Vera by UnicornIQ runs the scenario against our published rubric and gives the associate a marked transcript against the five criteria, so the feedback is specific: "you cited the letter but did not name an owner and date" is a sentence an associate can act on. Consent to practise is the associate's own, and the sessions are theirs. Nothing from a practice session is client work and none of it is billed.

What does a good answer sound like?

Something like this, for the Orrin scenario. "I understand you want more assurance on those processes before the final memo. The statement of work covers the agreed inventory with a plan of one partner, one senior and two associates over nine weeks. Testing beyond the inventory is a scope change: I will write it up with the extra weeks it would need, June will check whether that capacity exists against named people, and Harriet will come back to you in writing by the end of the week." Five criteria, one paragraph, no promise.

What does a weak answer sound like?

"Of course, we can fit that in." It is warm, it is quick, and it commits the firm to capacity nobody has checked, at a fee nobody has agreed, under a scope nobody has written. The rubric scores it accordingly.

How often should an associate practise?

Before any call where a request for more is likely, and after any real call that went less well than it should have. The scenarios are short, the rubric is fixed, and the marked transcript arrives at once, so a rehearsal fits into the quarter of an hour before a client conversation. Associates who practise the Orrin extension scenario a few times stop reaching for "of course" and start reaching for the statement of work.

The three authored scenarios are the firm's, built from the engagement letters and plans in our own files. An associate can also bring a situation from a real matter, with the client's facts kept inside that matter's lane, and rehearse the next conversation against the same five criteria. The rubric does not change. The sentence an associate can deliver under pressure does.

Q&A

The questions associates ask most about the practice scenarios are answered below.

Last updated 1 October 2026.

Questions and answers

What is the firm's practice rubric called?
Scoping a client engagement call. It has five criteria covering the signed scope, the engagement-specific terms, the staffing plan, routing a written change with an owner and date, and keeping each client's facts within its matter team.
What are the three authored scenarios?
Extra modelling before the Halden Foods board call; Orrin Marine asking whether two weeks of testing can be added to a plan of one partner 10%, one senior 40%, two associates 60% over 9 weeks; and Halden finance asking for net 30 when the letter says net 21.
Is a practice session client work?
No. Practice sessions are the associate's own, run with their consent inside the firm's workspace. None of it is billed to a client.
What is the single most common missing element?
The close. Associates cite the terms well and forget to name an owner, a next step and a date. The rubric's fourth criterion exists for that reason.

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How we work

Why does advisory work start in writing?

Before anyone at Larkspur & Vance opens a client file, there is a signed engagement letter. Here is what it records, why a request on a call is not a change of scope, and what goes wrong when a firm skips the letter.

Harriet Larkspur · Managing Partner · · 4 min read