Clients First: The Two Word Miracle

What’s Best for Them

Now and then I have a client who will say something unusual about how hard we’ve worked and how we really deserve our commission. This is usually when we are not getting paid, because a deal is going south, or when the client has decided, after all our efforts, not to sell. The reason this strikes me as unusual is because I know most people are really only concerned with their self-interests. I never know whether such people are truly incarnations of Buddha or, more probably, just feel guilty. I tell them to forget about it, that all that is important to us is what is best for them, and I believe every word. Unearned commission should never be a client’s concern. What matters to these people is what is best for them, and what matters to us is putting Clients First, which is whatever is best for them.

Also, every now and then I hear workers quoting the expense they’ve gone to in producing shoddy work, and I shake my head in disbelief. They say things like, “I’ve got 50 hours in this,” or “I spent $1,000 on materials.” The recipients of the poor job don’t care about the cost of delivering bad results. They care about getting what they bargained for. Providers of goods and services have to get over themselves. People care about themselves and what is best for them. When executives in a company understand that, they will put their customers first and stop running self-serving commercials.