Two of the worst business practices you can commit are lying and not communicating. I have a friend in our business that is probably one of the most loved and the most hated person in our field of work. He is loved by the clients he communicates with and hated by the ones he disrespects by not communicating with them. Somewhere along the way he was taught or shown that the way to handle an unpleasant situation was just to ignore it. Even if the message is bad, it still needs to be delivered.
This past week I ran across a situation that made me chuckle. I am part owner in a vehicle restoration project that is quite complicated. We found a guy who owns the restoration company that specializes in this type vehicle. He flew to Atlanta to evaluate the vehicle and we had a conference call last Thursday where he priced everything out for the whole job. We said great, let’s do it. He then said well . . . let me get back to the office just to confirm my numbers and I will give you a proposal Monday. Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went and then we started calling, and texting. Nothing, Complete silence. Friday at 5pm the proposal comes in and it is twice the amount he stood there and told us it would be. He committed both business practices I am speaking about.
Some of the best leaders I have ever known have one characteristic in common. They treat other people the way they would want to be treated. Seems like I might have read that somewhere. Ha. Being the kind of person that a person like you would want to be a friend to, is maybe the first step.
In business, I try to be honest with clients and I always call them back even if the decision is difficult. I believe personally that people remember these simple acts and they can easily be the basis for choosing to work with you again in the future. If we all treated people the way we want to be treated, wouldn’t the world be a far better place? The Bible makes it clear that we will reap what we sow. It means that the way you treat others is the way others are going to treat you. Pretty simple, right? KT