“Look, if you’re only looking for a one-year contract, we’re probably not the right person, not the right company,” Smith said.
“We want you to be with us long-term. We want to get you up on stage with me at conferences. We want to do webinars, we want to do roundtables, we want to promote your brand, as much as we want you to promote my brand. It means we both have to be happy and we have to be secure and unafraid in this relationship.”
Having a relationship like that also comes with some frank talk on both sides, “if you set the right expectation. You might not want to hear what we have to say, or what comes after it, but you’re going to take it a lot better,” because it comes from a transparent place. “An open, honest, transparent relationship with your technology provider is huge… That dialogue leads to competence and diminishes fear.”
He stresses that not knowing the answer to a question is not a sign of weakness, or the end of the world.
“The worst thing you can do on a call is pretend you know something,” Smith said. “You’ve got to keep it simple, straightforward. And don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know.”
The answer to your question may be just a phone call away, or by sitting in on a 15-minute Zoom call with a colleague.
Source: mpamag.com