The best client is a scared millionaire.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that wealthy clients are often the most cautious and discerning, which can be beneficial for service providers.
H. L. Mencken's quote implies that a client who has immense wealth yet feels a sense of fear or caution is likely to be the most valuable one. Such clients typically have the resources to invest significantly but are wary of risks, making them meticulous in their choices. This can lead to a stronger, more thoughtful business relationship where the service provider must meet high standards to earn their trust.
In practice
This quote could be used in a business meeting to emphasize the importance of understanding wealthy clients' concerns.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
I don't look at business as a zero-sum game. I don't. I've never seen it play out that way in our industry, and I think you innovate and you add value, deliver value back to customers, and you get value back from the world.
A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service.
Business is what concerns us. If you care about something enough to do something about it, you're in business
No one knows the cost of a defective product - don't tell me you do. You know the cost of replacing it, but not the cost of a dissatisfied customer.
I think that the direct conversation is exactly what companies need to earn trust of customers. Admit an error. Fix a problem. Commit to doing better. That is only human.
It is more important to do what is strategically right than what is immediately profitable.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.