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In the era of the Global MicroBrand, you are not limited to working with people who live within 20 miles of your home or office.
You can find customers and clients all over the world.
So, there’s no need to work with people you don’t like. (My first boss gave me that advice. His other advice? Don’t believe your own bullshit, but I digress.)
I’ve documented one fantastic example of a potential customer who thought about a true working relationship.
And just the other day, a potential client called to say that her boss had gotten promoted and our project was DOA. I was bummed. She sensed it and you know what she did?
“Look…I WANT to work with you one way or another, so forget that project, I have budget for another project, let’s see if we can make that happen!”
It was a very human moment where she recognized the amount of work I had put into the original proposal and because of our rapport, she WANTS me to succeed as a consultant.
Now, contrast that with another potential client who was referred to me by the network.
We agreed on a call at a specific date and time. I sent the meeting request. She was going to call me.
At the appointed time, she didn’t call.
I emailed:
HI! I was expecting your call at 9.15. I am still available or we can reschedule. Let me know.
Her response:
Been swamped in meetings all day long..... I will try to call you later. Do you want to talk tomorrow?
What was missing?
An apology.
Maybe I am overreacting and now I am Mr. Sensitive, but NO mention of the fact that she was supposed to call?
I highlight this “need to apologize as a human gesture” in my Marketing Survival Strategies for the Attention Economy keynote…and I am sure there are plenty of examples when I miss the mark, so perhaps I should look in the mirror first.
Still…blogging about it raises my awareness of it and hopefully does the same for you.
When I was starting out in this business, Word-of-Mouth guru Andy Sernovitz said to me, “if you see ANY red flags early on, don’t ignore them. As a consultant, you can’t afford to have clients who won’t respect your time or your effort.”
What the lack of apology said to me was “you weren’t even important enough for me to say ‘sorry’ or give you the heads up earlier in the day that things were hectic and I may need to reschedule.”
That was a red flag and it killed my interest to reschedule.
Question: am I overreacting on this one?
