There are Clients.....and then there's Everyone Else

I believe that when you get down to the bare bones of our chemical make-up, most of us are not jerks...........and I am no different.  However, we all have our moments of "jerkiness" that we're not proud of..........and I'm still no different.  We need to be very concious of who sees what side, to what extreme, and how often.

I'm bad at returning voicemails, it's a weakness of mine for some reason to which I can't explain.  It's so easy, I just have some sort of block against it.  I prioritize the voicemails that I need to return as follows:

1.  Clients
2.  My direct sales team
3.  Family
4.  Colleagues
5.  Friends

Now let me clarify - if family and friends have an emergency, they always text.  Voicemails generally mean that they just want to catch up............

#'s 1 and 2 get a call back within a few hours, without fail.  #3 almost always gets called back the same day, but sometimes the next.  #'s 4 and 5 might be the same day, but there's a good chance it will be the following day.  Herein lies one of my moments of "jerkiness."  Colleagues deserve a call back immediately, and friends are right there behind them.

I have experienced a situation where a colleague has left the company to go work for a client.  And not just any client, a very important client.  We had a great working relationship, but I can't help but rewind and try to recount if there were times when I delayed my responses to him............or worse.  I haven't recalled anything earth shattering, but it still leaves me wondering.

As good sales people, we set our clients above everyone else...........as we should.  We are always on our game, and don't let anything compromise that.  But, I'm pretty sure that we don't give enough consideration that someday "everyone else" could become one of our clients.  If you don't have much "jerk" in you, you probably don't have anything to worry about.  If you struggle with "selective jerkiness" it may come back to bite you one day.  If you're not sure if you struggle here or not, just ask someone..........they'll tell you.