When you are trying to determine how best to gain the cooperation, confidence and trust of your client, put yourself in their shoes and examine the circumstances from their subjective viewpoint. Ask yourself, what are their pain points, fears, worries, anxieties, wishes, prayers and needs.
For example, a single unemployed mother whose husband has left her at home with children may be consumed by the most basic needs, such as affording housing, food and clothing. For those clients who have all their financial needs met may be motivated by higher level goals such as the purchase of a new home or securing a long-term divorce settlement.
By spending a prolonged amount of time at the beginning of a retainer, asking open-ended questions and letting the client unload, decompress and express then you can really know what is driving them. Then you can begin each subsequent conversation with an acknowledgement of what is important to them.
That is how you gain the cooperation, confidence and trust of your client. This should be monitored through regular check-ins with the client, as needs can change throughout the process.
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