Shad M
Take the high road Posted 9:40 AM on 04/25/08If you go over the buyer you run the risk of making your life miserable as long as he is around. This is such a difficult area! I personally have experience with this type of scenario. Here is a great way to handle it. Ask the buyer to sit down with you and the owner for a meeting. Then address your concerns IN FRONT of the owner. Be diplomatic and take the posture of "what can I do better to earn ALL of your business". Then make reference to the "split" sale occurence. Ask them both for ideas on how to accomplish your goal and that "sharing the wealth" is something you want to avoid. If your relationship with the owner is as good as you claim then this short meeting should cure the problem. If not then you need to re-evaluate the relationship. Also, find something you and this buyer have in common and begin to develop a relationship with him/her. I know it sucks and you may not like them, but this is business and personal feelings need to be tossed aside. People buy from people they LIKE, if this buyer doesn't like you then that is YOUR failure and YOU need to be the one to make it right. Take them to lunch and find out what you did, ask for forgiveness and move on. That is the high road in my opinion, it s hard to do, but might just make all the difference. Do you have what it takes to do it?
