Navigating Difficult Conversations with Grace and Empathy
June 1, 2023
Are You Serious Enough About Success in Your REI Business to Invest Like a Franchisee?
July 5, 2023
Many of the articles I write in this newsletter come from an idea I get from reading other articles or comments from all sorts of different sources. This article’s idea came from an email that my brother Brian, who is also one of my top sales reps, sent to my entire company recently. He sent it because we have been having some internal communication issues lately that have caused a bit of angst among some of my employees. I thought his advice was good, so I am passing it along.
“I just want to share with you the first lesson I learned in my first sales job, which happened to be printing-related, but with a different company. We were a 500+ million dollar company at the time and had plants all over the US. I was in a satellite sales office. So trying to communicate with the production plants and customer service effectively was extra crucial when it came to orders.
My manager told me that you have external customers AND internal customers. Your external customers are your clients. So it is obvious that you should treat them with high respect and have great rapport because you want them to return.
Your internal customers are EVERYBODY who works in the company to get your jobs out the door…
…from the receptionist to the person who ships them out. They need to be treated as if they were your clients as well. Being respectful, appreciative and accommodating (meaning you give them EVERYTHING they need to know to produce your job and get it out the door correctly and quickly, as well as communicating to them CLEARLY). This produces a team environment, and thus they are happy to work for you.
This is critical not only for general good relations, but when it comes time for you to ask a favor or have them go above and beyond for you because of a rush job or maybe, you dropping the ball, guess who they are going to take care of first? You or someone else who is a jerk? You.
So this is a little self-serving, but it keeps the team happy, and the company is prosperous in the long run. Win-win!”
