Everyone loves to buy. No one likes to be sold—not you, and not your clients. That’s for good reason, because “selling” gets a deservedly bad rap. Even in the dictionary, the verb “to sell” is linked to imposing, cheating and betrayal.

It happened again, just last week. We’re on a teleconference call. Charlie and I are the buyers. We’re joined by a salesperson. A couple of our team members beep in and the call officially begins. Sales Guy leads brief introductions for all attending. Good. We exchange a few pleasantries. Nice. Then Sales Guy does the thing I hate most.

I work with a lot of really smart clients who aren’t arrogant at all, they just come across that way. Sometimes their clients let them know it’s a problem; other times instead of feedback they get tuned out.

Intimacy gets a lot of real estate on these virtual pages, and for good reason: trusted advisors are safe havens for tough issues, and intimacy is what earns you that safe haven designation. Today: a slightly different take on intimacy, with two reminders about how to build it in a way that can actually be—dare I say it—fun.

We all know that bumper sticker: “Stuff happens” (well, that’s the G-rated version). Sometimes things just don’t go well. Problems occur. It might even be your fault. The question is: can you recover the trust you may have lost in the process?