10 Signs Your Client Relationship Won't Work
Listicles continue their seemingly unassailable rise. So how could I resist the dailymail clickbait of 10 signs your relationship won’t work?
Aimed perhaps at the early stages of getting together, a point at which ‘idealisation’ is in play, here’s their ten bullets;
1. You’re not friends on Facebook
2. There are no signs about moving in together in the near future
3. Getting matching tattoos within weeks of knowing each other
4. When it’s textbook perfect (“including giving more than one compliment a day”)
5. You don’t spend most Fridays together (“Let’s just be clear: Friday night is date night”)
6. They won’t travel to you
7. You haven’t met their friends or family
8. They don’t call you their boyfriend or girlfriend
9. They don’t buy romantic gifts
10. They haven’t asked for exclusivity
“Let’s be clear. Friday night is Boys Night.”
I couldn’t help myself relate this to solution selling.
So here’s a quick seasonal remix; 10 Signs Your Client Relationship Won’t Work;
- they won’t give you a written reference
- they’re slow to the point of forgetful about returning your messages
- actions miserably fall short of words
- they put back meetings with little notice
- there always seems to be another crisis somewhere else
- you feel ignored or at the very least are not receiving pleasantries due at their internal meetings (in general, when on-site you feel like a cultural outsider)
- collaboration is witheringly absent on tackling issues
- requests feel like commands (aka; a power imbalance is being levered against you)
- disinterest in your latest company, product and – perhaps most hurtful of all – personal news is crushing
- their payment procedures have zero urgency
You can apply or adapt these to prospects too. In which case, you now have heavyweight additions to your qualification routines.