Cool Cat Status
When I was a newbie in sales at the start of my career, I attended a prospective client meeting (a leading automotive brand) with my boss. It was a meeting to resolve past issues that had occurred between our organisations when they were previously a client of ours ... and there we sat, at a full boardroom table, facing their team who were eye-balling the two of us. We were there to win more work from them but first we had to put the past to rest. I knew it was going to be an interesting meeting but I must admit, I did feel somewhat like bambi in hunting season sitting in that boardroom.
The conversation escalated quickly into a tense exchange when one of the team members lost his temper completely, and before I knew it, we were on the receiving end of some pretty aggressive behaviour. It was the first time I was witness to such a high level of emotion in a work setting and I could feel my shock, stress and anger rise at the situation. My inexperience left me completely frozen, but what I noticed more than the incredibly angry guy across the table from us, was the calmness emanating from my boss. He didn’t get flustered, his body language remained relaxed and he responded to every accusation that came our way with composed and credible responses. He epitomised ‘cool cat’ status and as someone who has a touch of volatility running through her veins, I was in awe.
‘How the hell did you remain so calm??’ I asked him as we walked out the door after the meeting. To this day I’ve never forgotten his response. He smiled and said ‘When you become emotional, you lose control, and one of us had to remain in control of the conversation. And it clearly wasn’t going to be him today.’
We went on to win my first deal with this client and I was lucky enough to learn many more valuable lessons from this mentor over the next five years. I was reminded of this memory recently thanks to thought leader Monique Richardson. I met Monique in a webinar last month when I was allocated to a break-out room with her and another beautiful thought leader, Stacey Ashley. I could feel their interest and support in what I do pour through the zoom call and it was during this conversation that I learnt about Monique’s expertise in Service Leadership & Customer Service. She graciously sent me her book ‘Managing Difficult Customer Behaviour’ which I paged through eagerly, absorbing her content and practical tips. This go-to handbook is so easy to read and is packed with insights and wise advice based on her 20 years’ experience working with, and advocating for, customer service professionals.
One of her key points in dealing with an agitated customer is to first stay calm and be aware of your choice to respond to the customer, and not react. It was her sentence: ‘We empower ourselves by controlling the interaction rather than letting the customer take us in a direction we don’t want to go’ that really resonated with me, reminding me of my experience that day in that boardroom.
Today I still strive for ‘cool cat status’ and thanks to reminders of past mentors and lessons learnt ... and valuable books and LinkedIn posts such as Monique’s ... I’m taking it all in.
One cool cat step at a time.
