REMEMBERING A REMARKABLE CLIENT

REMEMBERING A REMARKABLE CLIENT.

Marketing is an aspect of business that its experience is beyond compare.
I would have started this piece of writing using the age old approach of ‘once upon a time, time time. There was a man bla blab la…’ however, I strongly believe that whoever that reads this piece will follow the flow as it unfolds.

Last year, in my marketing drive, I approached uncountable number of prospective clients. Many listened without any trace of interest while some looked at me as a modern day official yahoo boy. This particular man am writing of falls into this group.

Just last week as fate would have it, this young man gladdened my heart as he handed out a writ of summons to me. As I arrived, he handed some of his certificates to me for dematerialization and lodgment into his CSCS account. The whole scenario could not help but paint a funny picture as he was very apt to ask questions and sounded it clearly to my ears that as a customer he must be treated well to his taste not forgetting that he remains right always and also the king. To all these wonderful proverbs of Solomon I nodded to in affirmation. Why must I accept all these from this young man, I need to clinch his account and manage his portfolio.

I can confidently reveal that this young man is a big catch!
His certificates were worth over six hundred thousand naira in a bearish market, August 18, 2008 to be precise. The floor of the Nigerian stock exchange was bloody after the day’s trading.

Why was this client peculiar?
You are about to be informed. Just relax.
In the first place, this young man handed to me five certificates emanating from different quoted companies in the Nigerian stock exchange.
Five of them had various variation of his names carefully emblazoned on each of them which he never noticed. The crux of the matter was that I nearly became a scape goat for his mistakes only that the whole certificates have been in his custody since they were created. He blamed me strongly for not coming to keep him informed when he had not asked for my services.

The funniest of the day was where he brought out the certificates from. When I got there, he told me that the certificates were around but not reachable. I agreed and was about leaving having thrown some banter at him and few of his friends around, I told him to bring it to our office in MARINA, Central Lagos business district when he must have sorted things out. To that he said I should wait for awhile. Don’t forget we are in his cosmetics shop.
When the few friends left, he started unpacking a cupboard chest with such dexterity that you cannot help but bemused by him, all the same, he was watching if someone familiar was entering. If any one he knew entered, he stopped his search and starts re-arranging other areas. His office boy reminded him that the chest he was searching contained only empty drug containers but he told him not to worry and continued his search. After about ten minutes of it, he selected three different containers smiling.

His office boy in his amazement told him that he would have disposed those empty containers but for the fact that he was sent on an errand shortly as the days business commenced. My honorable client looked at him sternly then jokingly told him that he would have been heading to MAZA-MAZA right now to board the first night bus heading to Aba right away.
In my presence, the five certificates, the photocopies of the original public offer forms he filled out with their corresponding bank tellers were carefully extracted from the plastic drug containers all neatly folded!
Did I hear you say, I thought traders are illiterates?
I could not help but laugh at the ingenuity employed and the time it took this young man to perfect this act of safeguarding his hard earned treasure. Not long, our eyes collided, he smiled and said carefulness is not cowardice.

As I enveloped the certificates to leave, I told myself that its only Gulder ultimate search V that would have fished out those golden papers had his boy thrown them away.