To get prioritized by service providers, treat them as partners with genuine care, validate their expertise and invest in the relationship, and position yourself as a mid-sized client (roughly #2-#9) rather than the biggest or smallest. This balance keeps you important without overextending their resources.
Service providers want to serve someone who cares about them. It gets back to servant leadership, right? Mm-hmm. And, you know, you have to validate they are who they are and what they do is what they do. And what you need to get done, they've done many times before, and that the people are real and they're hardworking and that they're seeing that you're investing time in them and they want to invest time in you. I always, I always tell clients, you want to be somewhere between client number 2 and number 9. You don't want to be the biggest client because you have too many eggs in their basket. But, you know, anything under 10 or 15 or 20, you know, the world revolves around prioritization. If you're a small client, you know, you're going to be treated accordingly, unfortunately. But if you're strategic, if you're important, if you care, if you invest the time and energy, then you'll get it back in multiples.
