A single sentence.
And how it can predict a business relationship. |
Couple of weeks back a founder I know forwarded me an email thread for some feedback.
But I got stuck on one line in that email, in a note from her longtime client. |
| The client had written: “Also – did your daughter end up choosing the school? You were deciding when we last spoke.” |
| They’d last spoken four months earlier. About a project. The school comment had been a throwaway, ten seconds at the end of a call. |
Four months later, the client remembered.
And asked. |
That one sentence immediately defined the relationship she has with her client.
That client isn’t going anywhere. |
| That client stays because someone made them feel like a person who was actually heard, not an account being managed. |
You can’t fake that sentence.
You can’t automate it. |
| No AI writes “did your daughter choose the school” unless someone, somewhere, actually listened and actually remembered and actually cared enough to bring it back up. |
| That’s the whole point, isn’t it? |
| In a world where every proposal, every deck, every follow-up email can now be generated in seconds – the one move that still can’t be faked is remembering what someone told you when they weren’t talking about business. |
| So a small challenge for this week, and it’s genuinely small. |
| Think of one client, or one referrer, or one person who matters to your firm. |
| Now think of one thing they told you recently that had nothing to do with work. |
A trip they were about to take.
A kid’s game.
A decision they were weighing.
A thing they were worried about. |
| Do you remember it? |
| If you do – that’s your sentence. |
| Send the note. |
“How was the trip?”
“Did the presentation go okay?” |
No agenda.
No ask.
Just the thing that proves you were listening. |
If you can’t think of one, that’s worth knowing too.
It usually means the last few conversations were all business.
Which is fine, and human, and fixable the next time you talk. |
| One question, and I’d genuinely like to know: |
When did a client or partner last remember something personal about you – something you’d only mentioned in passing?
How did it make you feel about them? |
| Hit reply and tell me. I read every email. |
