A couple of weeks ago I met a friend of mine to catch up with how he was doing. He is a wealthy business owner who makes his millions buying and selling companies. Somehow, the discussion drifted to his frustration working with the professionals he uses to execute his plans. It caught my ear because this is exactly what I write about and what you need to hear.

He didn’t complain about their technical ability. They are fully competent. What bugs him the most is his experience working with them. He describes them as needing to be managed. An interesting way of putting it, don’t you think? So I asked him what they do that has him so fired up.

“It’s what they DON’T do. They don’t get back to me. They don’t let me know how far along they are. They don’t give me confidence they’re on top of my stuff. It’s like they don’t pay attention and I have to manage them.”

Here’s the lesson: Could he be your client? Could these same things be said of you? They could if you think like this:

It’s on my list. I’ll call as soon as I can get to it.

• I’ll call back when I have an answer to their question.
• I left a message a couple of weeks ago. They will call me back if they need to talk with me.
• I don’t have anything to report. I’ll call when something changes.

If you think or say these things, you make your clients believe they have to manage you. Your technical capability isn’t enough to overcome your clients’ bad experience of having to manage you.

Sometime this week, put on your calendar about a half hour to review which of your clients may believe they have to manage you and demonstrate you can manage yourself. You need to say it and your clients need to hear it.