• ↑Mindset

How to Graciously receive a Compliment!

With any compliment that you get I would look to do two things.

Number one, one of the things that I would definitely encourage you to do if you are sitting there having conversations with clients now, particularly ones that you have been working with for 2 1/2 or 3 years or longer, when you have a conversation with them where the conversation is like you’re talking them down off the ledge. You have probably had those conversations every once in a while where people will say, “you know what I knew you wouldn’t say that but I like to hear from you again. I always feel so much better when I talk to you. You make me feel very, very comfortable I am glad that we are working together.”

Now the question becomes what do I do with that? I’m the mistake but some advisers make if they take the ‘oh shucks’ approach they say, “It’s nothing. I am just doing my job I appreciate the compliment but that is what is I am here to do for you.”

If you think about that from the point of view of your client what you are in essence doing in some ways is invalidating the compliment they are giving you. They are giving you a compliment, they are telling you that you are doing something extraordinary and in a way you are actually correcting them and saying, “you don’t need to complement the on that. It’s no big deal I am just doing my job. I am doing what anybody would do.”

Consciously they are not going to think anything because that’s normal people are humble and we like people to be humble when they receive complements.

But if we are doing stuff that is extraordinary to that client we actually want to take a bit of a different approach.

Number one if we are performing above and beyond the call of duty, if we have increased the contact, if we are really finding out what is going on in the mind of the client if we had designed and implemented a plan to help get them where they want to go, helping them navigate through these troubled times and we are receiving a complement for that the first thing that we want to do is accept it graciously say, “thank you very much I appreciate that. I work very hard to help clients go through times like this. This is when I really feel like I am earning my fees more than ever. I always feel like I’m earning my feet but really this is when I am providing value above and beyond the call of duty. And I really appreciate the fact that you recognize that, so thank you very much! Your compliment to me is a huge gift.”

So now we are taking it and humbly still, patting ourselves on the back and recognizing that we are great, but we hear that we are great but not making these necessarily claims of greatness.