The Practitioner: It's not all work work work...
Is there such a thing as a free lunch? The Practitioner ponders over dessert
It’s not all work work work…
Do you remember the NatWest bank advert that had the catchphrase, ‘it’s not all work, work……?’
I thought about it today whilst I was being entertained by said bank in a very trendy restaurant in a vibrant north west city.
It’s not often that you get to have free lunch paid for by the bank and to be honest I don’t suppose it was a free lunch; the bank were after a client of mine and they had worked out that the best way to get to my client was through my stomach. To be fair to them they are spot on. Feed me like a king and I’m basically putty in your hands.
The day consisted of two parts; firstly breakfast, just myself and the bank manager, followed by lunch in swanky restaurant accompanied by my client.
Said client is probably the biggest client that I look after and the bank have obviously clocked his progress on some database or other, as well as clocking the fact that my firm do the audit. I realised today they are not only after his business account but his personal account too. Several managers basically ambushed him in their sky-rise offices, all after his signature. They could have been a bit subtler!
My client was not that impressed with proceedings in their offices even though the lunch was tip-top. Just by chance on the table next to ours were a couple of Premiership footballers from my clients’ favourite team. Surely they didn’t set that up as well did they??
They had obviously done their homework and figured that my client was impressed by two things, footballers and good-looking blondes.
He resisted from signing any forms there and then but vowed to get back to them by the end of the week. I phoned him up on my way home to advise him to hold off sending the forms back.
‘Let’s see what they offer us next time!’ I said to him.
I am going to email the bank in the morning and tell that that my client has a new found love of all things “New York’, and see what happens…
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The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from the coalface of a regional firm in the heart of England