We all have our pet peeves. I’ve got plenty.

Here’s one: people who say to me, “I’m sorry sir, but that’s our policy.”

This may sound harsh, but in my experience, sticking rigidly to the letter of company policy comes from one of two places:

1. Jobs where employees have no empowerment or latitude to use their judgment.
2. Small, petty people who throw around what little authority they have.

Let me put it another way. Early in my retail career, a boss explained something that stuck with me ever since:

Roughly 1% of customers are dishonest and will try to rip you off. But if you build all your policies around foiling that 1%, you’ll alienate the other 99%.

Instead of belaboring the point, I’ll say one word and let you connect the dots:

Costco.

Costco is a business that gets it. Enough said.

Looking after your customers or clients goes way beyond return policies. It applies to everything you say and do.

My current boss — our company president — feels even more strongly about this.

We were once in a meeting that was dragging on because we were debating terms and conditions for a quarterly sales promotion. We were in the weeds, arguing over tiny details that didn’t matter.

He cut us off and reminded us of one of his core tenets:

“We are not an anti-sales organization.”

His vision for how we do business really boils down to two things:

• Make it as easy as possible for dealers to give us their order.
• If a dealer has a problem, find the smartest, simplest way to solve it.

Obviously, you have a business to run, not a hobby. You can’t let yourself be taken advantage of. But the clients trying to game you are rare. You’ll recognize them when they show up, and you can deal with them individually.

The rest? They just want to be looked after — the same way you do when you’re making a purchase.

Before I moved into distribution, I spent a lot of time on the other side of the desk as a dealer working with vendor reps. That experience left me with a very clear picture of how I want to treat my dealers.

So ask yourself: are you in the business of selling something, or not selling it? If it’s the latter, don’t build roadblocks around yourself that make it harder to do business.