When you screw up, you learn. Lessons from almost burning the house down
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, still in a sleepy daze, and the first thing that pops into your head is that dream prospective client you spoke to two days ago?
“Hmmm... wonder why they popped into my head,” you think.
As you start to doze back off, your eyes bulge open as it hits you—you promised some same-day information to them and forgot to send it. Oh, and it wasn’t just any information. It was a contract for them to review before moving forward with you.
Now, you’re awake—fully awake, knot in your throat, mind racing.
“Oh shit, shit, how did I forget? You idiot, how could you forget to send the email? They asked for the contract for heaven's sake! They said they wanted to move forward! You were so excited, practically giddy, just imagining what a great experience working with them would be. How could you forget?”
If it’s not clear yet, I have been through this.
Those moments bring you right back to when puberty first hit and your parents were yelling at you for doing something stupid. “WHY, WHY, WHY did you leave ramen boiling on the stove, go into your room and fall asleep? You almost set the house on fire!”
You’re just staring back at them, half awake, saying nothing, because you actually don’t remember putting the ramen on the stove, walking to your room or falling asleep so you have the same question yourself.
When this happened to me as a newbie rep, I knew I had two choices—send an email and pray they respond OR call them and have an uncomfortable conversation with my tail between my legs. I knew what I wanted to do AKA the easier option, but I also knew what I should do, the gesture I’d appreciate most if the situation were reversed.
I called the client.
Why? I am human and so are they. I was honest and sincere. I thanked them for being understanding and patient. I got lucky, they weren’t the jerky kind of human, and we moved forward.
This incident was not an enjoyable experience and I wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened again. To prevent it, I implemented the end of day/end of week wrap up. What is that? It’s my 15-30 minutes to look at my calendar, my phone and my email to make sure I’ve got my crap together. And if, for some reason, something is taking longer than anticipated, I can let the person on the other end know and reset the expectation.
Whether you’re an entry level employee or a C-level executive, organization is important. Sure, the whole sentiment of “being over-organized plays into your perfectionism”, can be true (looking at you, with the color-coded closet) but there’s a balance that can be struck. If you don’t follow up with your clients, count on not having many clients. Put a catch/guard in place for yourself so these situations don’t happen.
No matter how well you know someone, if they tell you they’re going to do something and they don’t, it can stick with you for a minute. You may be okay with it but subconsciously, you may think they are a bit unreliable.
With a potential client, this could completely squash their interest and trust in wanting to work with you. There are instances where the customer could ghost, ask to work with someone else at the company or decide to go with a competitor.
We all make mistakes so once may not be a huge deal. But wherever you can support yourself with the many things you’re juggling on a daily basis, you should. No one wants to wake up in the middle of the night, stressed about an email they didn’t send or ramen they never ate. Put processes in place ahead of time to avoid this and get more peaceful sleep.