Clients: of noble merchants and conniving frauds

In sales, we get to deal with all kinds of clients. With some we need to show flexibility, with others we need to insist on our principles. Here are two examples:
‚The Noble Merchant‘
At the outset of my career, I was at a hotel for a meeting with a client. I was in my late twenties, and I wanted to win over a client who was almost twice my age. Although well-prepared, I kept pacing nervously through the fully booked hotel. The fact that there was an annual gathering of the Siemens works council didn’t help things. I had never seen such a throng of grey-looking gentlemen in my life and began to fear that my client would be no less of an ill-humoured, fastidious killjoy….