By Bill Rusteberg
As a self employed insurance agent I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over the past 50 years, the result of calling on thousands more in prospecting efforts to gain more business. I’ve met all types of personalities, developing a skill few have. Understanding motivation, goals and interests is secondary to understanding moral and ethical values of those you strive to do business with.
Not all prospects make good business partners. As a younger man with a family to feed and no source of steady income, under financial stress the memory of which remains with me to this day reinforcing frugality and discipline, I couldn’t afford to practice discrimination. I did business with everyone I could.
As years went by and I learned and earned more I found I could afford to choose clients with shared common interests, philosophies and motivations. Every year I’d review my client base to determine compatibility. One of the hardest things one must do in business is to let clients go.
I was reminded of this recently when I entered into a service agreement with a provider important to my business. Her Consulting Agreement started off with the following language:
“The best work comes out of great relationships. Honesty, respect and gratitude are the keys to a great relationship and therefore we have an interest in treating each other with these values at all times. As much as legal documents are important, what truly binds us is our drive to do great work with great people and to develop a relationship of mutual respect and trust.”
How great is this!
Never be disappointed when you misjudge a client based on moral, ethical and common decency grounds. There’s a remedy. A business owner once told me “Sometimes you don’t know who you hired, but you always know who you fired.”
Success gives one the freedom to do that.
