Several of my clients have asked for me to be removed from their accounts.

Dear Aunty B,

I am a passionate person who throws myself into everything I do.

I have been working in a client support role in a sales organisation and I thought I was really doing a great job because I go well beyond the brief and really try and understand their business, strategy and what they are seeking to do. This means I can provide them with solutions that sometimes even they hadn’t thought of.

But I have just been told that several of my clients have asked for me to be removed from their accounts.

I feel personally very upset and don’t understand why this has happened when I feel I have really added value beyond the job I was paid to do!

Can you shed any light on this and any advice on what to do next? My boss told me not to mind and this happens sometimes and they have just moved me over to other accounts so it hasn’t upset my long-term prospects at all.

TC,
Sydney

Dear TC,

Three things. Number one: develop more ticker. Stuff happens like this in business all the time. You are obviously going to be a very successful businesswomen so you have to learn resilience. This is not about you personally so therefore you shoudn’t feel “personally” upset. This happened in a professional context so take the personal feelings out of it. Also, the more you look backwards the less you can face forwards – so head up and onwards!

Second, life is bloody complex. I am a bit like you myself, which is why my sales team likes to take me out on client visits but would prefer I shut up and smile. Why? Well, sometimes people like us can over complicate things. When you are asked to come up with a solution to a problem you intelligently look at the problem to see if you can provide a better solution, don’t you? Most people in the world don’t do that. They simply respond with the quickest answer they can. But not you. Because you want to go the extra mile. The problem with that is it can cause problems.

First, your solution may cost the client more money. You mightn’t be able to see that because you are thinking of costs from your end. Second, your solutions might cost the client more time. Time is precious. Most people don’t have a second more in their day. If they have, they want to spend it drinking or with their family or at the gym, not implementing your solution or attending meetings. Third, you might be giving the client’s problem more priority than the client. Maybe they do just want a quick simple solution and you are reengineering it to create a bigger, better solution than the problem you are solving warrants.

Maybe you are over-thinking, over engineering and over strategising. So don’t give them a bigger solution than they ask for unless you really understand you can add value. Look beyond what the client asks for to their resources and time commitments.

Thirdly, remember this. It is wonderful to be a passionate person who throws themselves into things. But when a client has a problem it is about them. Not you. Not your passion. Not your desires. Not your energy. Not about how you appear to your bosses. It is about providing them with a way to look good for their boss, their boss’s boss, their customer and their customer’s customer. And that’s the rub. That can mean doing a different type of job to the one you want and that mightn’t give you satisfaction. In which case you may well need another career or job that is going to be able to absorb your passions and leave you feeling satisfied with the result.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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