What if?

I received a call from a friend from the Trenches today.  She had a client for whom she did a really good job.  Was the client happy?  This is the Trenches, so of course she wasn't.  She thought she could do better.  She was offered a great deal, but .....It wasn't that she didn't trust my friend's judgment and think she was doing a good job....  Well, you know how it is. Her friend got this and another friend got that, neither of which this woman was offered.   Of course those women's cases were entirely different, but still, why didn't my friend ask for that?  The point is that this client was having a lot of buyer's remorse.  You know, it's like when you buy a car and as you drive it off the lot you start to think that maybe you could have gotten a better deal.  It's not that you didn't get a good deal, but maybe if you'd just asked for a bit more....  It's perfectly normal.  What's also normal is my friend's reaction. What if the client was right?  What if she should have held out for more... or different?  Did she do something wrong?  Is there something she missed?  (The answer, by the way, is that she did a great job and got the client a really good deal)  What did my friend do?  She did exactly what her client did - she called a friend.  The difference is that she didn't call a friend who would simply tell her what she wanted to hear, but what she needed to hear (Yes, I would have told her if I thought she should do something else).  She didn't call a friend who would feed into her paranoia, but who would snap her out of it with a reality check.  She didn't call a friend who would just jump on what she said, but who would ask about all the facts so she could be truly helpful.  Maybe her friend wouldn't have had the best advice, but at least it would have been thoughtful and not driven by emotion, and that makes it valuable.  It's a lesson for our clients.  Here in the Trenches.