Clients First: The Two Word Miracle

We Leveraged Ourselves

Actually, our first assistant, Marta, was in her own way better than a JoAnn clone or a Joseph clone. She brought her own history and culture and personality to client interactions. She was different from JoAnn and me, and that difference enriched our clients.

Clients First transformed Marta as it had transformed us. Clients First was cloned in that moment when Marta said of a dismantled deal, “I’m glad. It really wasn’t the best thing for either of them.” She was talking, of course, about the Browns and the Smiths with whom we had met the night before. Marta knew that undoing their deal was the right thing to do, and she lived the Clients First maxim from that moment on. We leveraged ourselves through Marta, and that was the start of our Clients First team.

You might think that Marta’s acceptance was a no-brainer. After all, she was right there in our home office. We could hear her interact with clients. We could step in if things went screwy, or Marta could hand off the call if the client preferred talking to JoAnn. Why shouldn’t Marta follow our lead?