In the heat of the summer?
In the heat of the moment?
In the heat of the argument?
In the heat of the battle?
Passion is what we use to differentiate ourselves in our written and oral marketing as entrepreneurs. We believe in our service offering or our product and defend it to the nth degree.
When that passion comes through to your prospective client, they join your point of view, and it is incumbent on you to deliver and/or repair whatever goes wrong (because it will!) to make it right again, as promised.
Moving through the list of “the heat of”s that starts this post, in no particular order, it’s hot in the Northeast USA, the heat of the summer, and we just came off a heatwave that commanded a lot of press and created a lot of discomfort.
A client is mistaken about some assumptions he made about my services, although clearly articulated in the proposal and in the application for my services, yet he is not thinking straight or business-like about the ways I am trying to educate him and the efforts I have made to appease him. Is it the weather? Probably not.
In the heat of his email argument, to which I am defending my actions and service quality, he made some allegations that are not true, despite past emails about the topic at hand. Clearly, he has not absorbed the facts laid out before and is not doing so now. The heat of the moment is getting the better of him. And perhaps me.
I believe passionately that I provide expert client service in all that I do. I document, explain, reexplain, provide source documentation, all that I would expect others to do for me in the same situation, but the other side of the desk.
It does not always work. Depending on the receiver, his or her filters get the message jumbled, in the heat of the battle.
Yet there is another “heat of” that I try to convey. The heat of the passion I have for why I do what I do. It’s been repeated back to me by others in a phone call, after a talk I give, in my coaching and training, and responses to my LinkedIn profile.
It’s why an old boss and I will reacquaint after 18 years and meet over coffee because she follows my passion in my LinkedIn updates.
It’s why someone called the other day, after being connected to her for 8 years without much direct contact, to offer me an opportunity to quote on some business.
It’s why I do what I do.
Do you tell your “why” and do you explain it well in everything you do (LinkedIn profile included) so there is minimal negative “heat of” and as much positive “cool of” in your work passion?
Be honest. In the heat of business dealings, often passion leads us, hopefully to gain ground together.
