No Love Lost

Every now and then, it's brought to my attention that an account (buyer, dealer, distributor, whatever) simply doesn't like a sales rep.  I don't mean doesn't like them like they wouldn't choose to hang out with them on the weekends.  I mean doesn't like them as in would prefer to never have contact with them again.  This type of dislike is not brought to my attention very often, but it is every now and then.  Luckily it's most often brought to my attention as a rep from a different company, but I can't say that I'm completely immune to being in the middle of it.

When it does come up, it always crosses my mind that there are two sides to every story.  What is the reps defense, and was there a misunderstanding along the way?  But, in the end, it doesn't matter.  It is a sales reps job to build enough trust and repor with clients that they will want to buy from them.  The sales rep should adjust to the client, not visa versa.  If they make a mistake, mending the broken trust should become Mission #1 in life.  Mistakes, mis-judgements, bad decisions, misunderstandings.............they all happen.  But with the right approach and care, nothing is irrepairable.

If it's a personality clash, well that's where I come in.  The initiative of this post is totally unrelated to the initiative of yesterdays post "The Square Peg"...........but the correlation is there.  If it's a personality clash that can't be overcome, then the team member is in the wrong role.

**  I think I was meant to live on California time.  Phone starts ringing at 4:30am, slows down by 3:30pm, all televised sporting events are complete by 9pm.  Perfect.