English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Theoretical case: client suggests some non-optimal solution. How to offer another, better solution politely with indirect question? Is it ok to say "Don't you think doing it this way would be more efficient?" or using "Don't you think" implies that client might be incompetent in a way that he might have forgotten to consider the solution I offer?
P.S. I forgot to add - it's a written dialog, via Skype or email.
I would start with the word 'consider' as in:
Consider (doing something/ doing this way)
...followed by supporting argument(s).
I would certainly avoid using you/me/I at all and personal opinion. Instead, listing the plus points should serve better.
Kris suggested leaving out you, me, I terms and discussing facts rather than personal opinions, and also suggested that you present your alternatives starting with Consider.... Those are good suggestions, but it might be better to begin with a statement of objectives (if you know them) or a question about objectives.
For example, any of the following might be the most important concern: efficient operation; timely implementation; long-term flexibility and adaptability; immediate or lifetime cost; reuse of existing resources; or correctness and completeness.
After objectives are clear, then one might point out where the client's suggestion falls down on one or more primary objectives, and briefly mention that methods exist that meet the objectives. (If the client's suggestion does not fall down, there might be no compelling reason to suggest an alternative.)
