Nurture

Today I took the time to make my way to a quaint little seaside town some ninety minutes away from my home-office to meet with a valuable client enjoy a nice day driving in the countryside and time, including lunch, in the lovely location and all paid for by the company. Ok, I met with the client also, but it was a basic relationship-nurturing meeting rather than a straight-up hard core business meeting.

The client has been with my organisation since before I began working there, many years, and I was initially told he was difficult to work with and to 'be cautious' when I approached him; anyone would think he's a hungry tiger or something. I did that of course, applied caution, but I didn't find him at all difficult, in fact he was an absolute pleasure to deal with. Isn't it funny how different people's experiences with, and perceptions of, others can stick with them and potentially taint that of other people?

The client and I had a good meeting, a chat, coffee and I snuck in a small cookie also, and we chatted about everything other than the business dealings we have.

His account with my organisation is huge, many, many, many, many thousands of dollars and while he's had moments of dissatisfaction in the past everything is on the right path now - something he confirmed today - which he says is largely due to my efforts but we spoke mostly about his yacht, sailing and the fact we both work too hard.

The chap is a legit businessman who has built his business from the ground up and it was an enjoyable hour or so chatting and learning from him; he has a lot of knowledge and wisdom to impart. It was an incredibly productive meeting for me personally and for my organisation that will pay (even more) revenue dividends down the track for sure.

Nurturing relationships is critical to business, especially in a world where person-to person communication and relations are becoming less human. I hold towards the old ways mostly, personal attention and interaction, of course I use digital means also, but good old-fashioned personal attention and relationship nurturing goes a long way.

Speaking of nurturing...I managed to do some of that for myself too...nothing like a good fucken self-nurture-session in a quaint seaside town right folks?