Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: The Golden Rule

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For  the written transcript, keep reading...What about The Golden Rule? I don’t mean the one that says “Those with the gold make the rules,” (although that is true, it is also overdone to the point where often those with the gold treat others like crap). It’s the other golden rule I want to talk about: the real one, the original, the one that says, “Treat others as you would want to be treated.” Remember that rule? Have we outgrown that? Has that one, after thousands of years of usage, gone the way of the fax and the horse-drawn carriage? Has that rule become obsolete?

A few weeks ago, my column, The Customer 2.0, got a lot of attention. I discussed a new type of customer, the “millennials,” and others who are a little older. I explained how to best work with these folks, and how the cards were stacked in their favor. They do not answer the phone, nor do they return phone calls; they never answer e-mails and they cancel appointments on short notice without apologies or regrets. And the only time they give a sales person the time of day is when they need something.

Almost all of the comments I received about that column were positive. One person talked about how I was “right on” in describing her customers. Many others gave me examples from their own sales efforts that paralleled my views.

I was pleased that so many people read the column. I was equally happy to hear that what I wrote was accurate and that it was exactly what they were experiencing. Then I started processing what people were telling me. I thought about the sheer rudeness of the buyers and customers who were getting away with treating people like this and It made me mad. It made me realize that all sense of politeness has disappeared when it comes to business and dealing with people who are trying to make a living selling you something.

Now I know that the economic hard times brought on by the recent recession have made it a buyer’s market. I also know, to be fair, that the buyers are overworked; they have faced layoffs in their companies to the point where two employees now do the work five once did. I get all of that.

I also get that salespeople are more aggressive than ever, and that they have to work harder to make that sale. They have to be more adamant and insistent in trying to set up appointment to make sales calls. And I get that this puts a strain on already overworked buyers.

But that is no excuse for the rudeness going on in business today. Phone calls and e-mails left unanswered, appointments cancelled, and the permeating arrogance of those who have the gold toward those who do not.

When all is said and done, we are all hardworking people trying to do our best to make a living and support our families. We are all human beings and should treat each other as we would want to be treated, but, more than that, as trusted business associates who can help one another in the long run.

To repeat another old adage: “What goes around comes around.” Sooner or later we all need one another.

I’m reminded of a certain head of a purchasing department I knew many years ago. He had a team of approximatley 40 people working for him, all of them dedicated to buying about a $100 million of circuit boards for a large computer company.

This guy loved having the gold. He loved pushing us vendors around demanding that we jump through hoops, for not only his company, but for himself as well. He practically demanded the dinners and the rounds of golf that we vendors provided for him. And most of all he loved the “admiration” he thought we all had for him. He actually thought he was a great guy with lots of friends who loved him.

It was only when he lost this job that he came to realize that he had no friends. The dinners and the favors and the rounds of golf were all considered necessary evils that the salespeople had to provide to keep on his good side and keep those orders coming in. It was a sad day for this guy when he found himself out in the cold with no job, no power, and no friends.

But this story has a good ending. This guy figured out that he had been a jerk; he was suitably humbled to the point that he found a job, he made some new friends, and he’s a very nice guy today. I know this because he’s the one who told me this story while he was apologizing to me for being such a jerk years before.

This guy learned his lesson the hard way. He learned that you have to treat people in business with as much respect as the people in your private life. We must treat the people we work with as well as we treat the people we worship with because, in the end, it’s all about the same thing: Treating those around us as we wish to be treated. And that, truly, is only common sense.