"You have to promise me one thing."
"What’s that?"
"You have to promise me you won’t go in the lab while he is shimming the magnet."
"WHY?"
"You wouldn’t bother a German shepherd while he was eating would you?"

Several years have passed and from this perspective, I see that our company was not being fair to Dr. Magnet or to our customers. Dr. Magnet was always in hot water because sales people complained bitterly about how he destroyed customer relations. Dr. Magnet’s manager defended him because he could do an installation in two weeks and it would be a good installation. Even though Dr. Magnet was the best, he was never promoted. He resented someone that knew less than he did becoming his new boss. This conflict lasted the entire seven years I worked at that company.

Our company should have helped Dr. Magnet to work better with people—all kinds of people in all kinds of capacities. If Dr. Magnet had the people skills coupled with his technical ability, he would have gotten the promotions he wanted and trained the other service people. Customer service would have improved. The sales people would have quit complaining and have had more time and energy for selling. Sales would have come easier because we would have had better customer references. The company would have been more profitable. The benefits go on and on and on!

Let’s back up and imagine a scenario with a customer-savvy Dr. Magnet. On the plane to the customer’s lab he reflects, "Gee, this guy must be pretty uptight. He just spent the equivalent of ten-years salary on a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. He probably had to fight with his colleagues and management to buy ours. He is going to be in charge of it, and he is betting his career that he made the right decision."

Dr. Magnet’s reverie continues over a gross airline meal of rubber chicken, deflated peas, and boiled rice washed down with apple juice in a plastic cup. He wonders which of the behavior styles this customer has and wishes he had asked that dumb saleswoman. But never mind, he can figure that out himself and adjust his behavior on the spot to ease the customer’s apprehension. If that customer is animated, Dr. Magnet will just put up with the craziness going on in the background and remember to laugh a lot even though he does not get it. If the customer is amiable, Dr. Magnet will slow down, drink the darned coffee, eat the stupid Danish, thank the customer, and talk about all the other happy customers and how pleased everyone is with the results they get from the instruments. If the customer is analytical, Dr. Magnet will grit his teeth, let the customer sit beside him and watch him shim as much as he can stand it, and answer the nitpicking questions with as much detail as he can muster. If the customer is an achiever, Dr. Magnet will brag briefly about the super installations he did in world class facilities and the famous scientists that ask for him. At least an achiever won’t be looking over his shoulder while he shims the magnet.

As Dr. Magnet loads his tool kit into the trunk of his rental car, he is confident that this will be a good installation and that the customer will be happy and that that foolish saleslady will stay out of his thinning hair.