Clients First: The Two Word Miracle

Queens to Swoon

This is synergy: the combination of ingredients that result in something much larger than its recipe. Synergy takes over when you combine honesty, competence, and caring. You end up with something that can change your world. But what happens if you measure out the ingredients and cut a few corners? What happens if you don’t mix in a full measure of honesty, 100 percent of competence, and all the care you can muster? Will you end up baking an ordinary cake with all the synergy of the plastic platter it sits on? Or will you bake a cake that drives kings to ecstasy and causes queens to swoon? This is the power of Clients First, and this is the power of synergy.

Is it really that simple? Could three keys really have such extraordinary power? Aren’t other qualities and activities necessary to put Clients First? One might think so. JoAnn and I certainly made copious lists. Remember how we discussed and debated for hours on end? We watched what happened each day in our own business. I originally came up with a list of 122 ways to put Clients First and could have added to it until I reached 1,000. We narrowed it down to less than a dozen, but when we applied the requirement that they be essential, that without this key, you could not put a Client First, we were left with only three. Not that the others on the list weren’t important, even vital, but they were either a part of one of the three keys or they were simply not essential. We called them “first runners-up.”