What if Our Clients Were Like Our Dogs?

THIS PIECE WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN 2014. Sadly, these three family members are no longer with us, but below are our three current rescued family members. Two of the three are blessing many as certified therapy dogs.

I confess that I am a dog lover. We have three rescued dogs, Barlow, Spud, and Kobe, each with their own odd personality.

Barlow, our lab is easily distracted. How often have you been in a meeting and sensed that you don't have a client's full attention? Buyers are busy, and this can happen.

One way to curtail that is to be engaging and draw the buyer into the conversation. We need to understand what their needs are and offer effective solutions to meet those needs. Like Barlow, buyers can quickly tire of a sales presentation, so engage them!

Spud is a precocious, long-haired miniature dachshund, and the little guy has a big personality. He's high energy, loves to bark, lets our neighbors know he's there, and feels a sense of entitlement. Many of our clients have the same characteristics as Spud. They bark for attention and feel they own you.

What do you do to counter that? You could prioritize your time based on the quality of the client. Of course, all clients are important, but you must keep a barking dog or client from getting to you.

Our oldest dog, Kobe, is a mixed breed. My son picked her out from the pound as a puppy. She is about 13 years old and has lumps on her head. These are benign lumps, and we have chosen not to remove them because of her age. She's cute to us, but not so attractive to others. She looks intimidating and scares off some people, but once you get to know her, she is very sweet. We have clients like this, too.

Clients may appear to be difficult initially, and the connection may take a while, but these clients are great to work with as your relationships grow.

When I go for a walk, I must choose which dog will join me. I ponder who will give me the least amount of grief. They hover around the front door, begging to be called on. Are we consistently calling on all our clients, or do we call on the easy clients while avoiding the barkers?

If we have good relationships, clients want to see us when we have something beneficial to share. It's easy, of course, to invest more time calling on the clients we enjoy working with more than others. If our clients were like dogs, we would want to see them, and they would be thrilled to hang out with us.

I have a special affection for each of our dogs' personalities. Choosing which dog to take on the walk can be challenging. Sometimes, I can't pick and just take them all. That's a bit crazy. When I do that, it's always a short walk.

One morning, the chosen dog, Kobe, and I were on a walk. We stopped and had a conversation. Well, I had a conversation with Kobe. With her tail wagging and a look of love in her eyes, I thought, what if our clients were like dogs?

Dogs can be fun-loving, sincere, good-natured, willing to learn, easy-going, respectful, gentle, friendly, carefree, and most importantly, loyal.

Some of our clients are like dogs. They love what we do and give us no grief. Others are barkers, constantly demanding attention. It would be great if our clients were like the dogs we love in our families.

In my next commentary, I'll cover what if our clients were like cats. Just kidding. Actually, our clients may be more like cats, but I won't go down that road. (Sorry, cat people.)

 © 2014 Jeff Solomon, MASCURRENT FAMILY MEMBERS - 2024

Kona

Kugel and Hoagie