A close friend of mine, John, passed away last year. John had led a good life, and kind of like me he always seemed to enjoy himself at whatever he was doing.
So, John’s at the pearly gates meeting St Peter and he’s mightily relieved when St Peter tells him that he’s welcome to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This came as a bit of a relief to John as he had spent a lifetime in banking as a client relationships manager, so it wasn’t a gimme!
John was a bit surprised when St Peter then told him he had a choice to make. He had the option of entering Heaven or going down to checkout hell with the devil, who had just mysteriously appeared next to St Peter.
John was a bit taken aback and quickly declined to see what the devil had to offer, but St Peter urged him to go with the devil as there was no compulsion to accept his offer and he could come back to St Peter and make his final decision.
So with much trepidation John went down for a tour of hell with the devil. Expecting to walk into fire, brimstone and the like, John was surprised to walk on to the first tee of a magnificent 18 hole golf course. He played a few holes with the devil, and the course was fantastic. Spongy fairways, greens like billiard tables, it was a golfer’s dream! John wasn’t sure about the honesty of the devil’s scoring but he supposed that was to be expected.
At the 19th hole he found a bar with a fantastic selection of beers and wines including his favourite Kronenbourg beer. Sky Sports was on the TV promising to show all of Tottenham Hotspur’s games. (This is hell remember!)
The devil then showed John another part of the building where there were 3 new squash courts, and as a keen squash player this really interested John. Finally he was shown a Formula 1 motor race at a nearby track. Was that really Jim Clark racing Ayrton Senna?
So after the tour John was a bit confused. He went back up to see St Peter. The harp players suddenly didn’t seem as much fun as the golf course and bars. St Peter asked for John’s final decision as to whether he wanted to spend eternity in heaven or hell. After much deliberation John opted for hell, apologising to St Peter and explaining that everything happening in hell was what he loved doing. St Peter said fine but it had to be his final decision.
John then headed back to hell with the devil. Expecting to walk onto the golf course, he was shocked to walk into fire, brimstone and eternal damnation. On questionning the devil about the absence of the golf course, bars etc. that he’d seen only 5 minutes previously, the devil responded…
‘5 minutes ago you were a prospect, now you’re a client.’
Make sure you effectively manage your client relationships!