What They’re Paying Us For

Depending on what we do for a living, some of us provide our customers with good news while others deliver bad.

Think about the car salesman: I’ve got great news! We’ve got that one on the lot and you can drive it home today!

Compare that with the auto mechanic: It’s not good. We’re going to have to rebuild the whole motor. I’m afraid it’s going to be a lot more expensive than we originally thought.

Just because our job sometimes requires us to deliver bad news to our clients doesn’t make it a bad job; it’s just the nature of our position.

Take a home inspector, for example. Sometimes we find really bad things when we’re inspecting a home, things that may end up changing our client’s mind about buying the house and causing the wheels of the sales process to come to a grinding halt. But that’s what the client hired us to do: to let them know if there’s something so wrong with their potential new home that it would make buying it a bad decision.

Just because we have to deliver bad news doesn’t make us bad. If we do our jobs in a professional manner, working with compassion and empathy, and putting the needs of our customers first, well, that’s exactly what they’re paying us for.

Share this Post