My longtime trusted contact at a promotional products company had quit, so I was assigned a new rep. My first outreach to this individual was an email with details of an order needed for one of my clients—quantity, color, imprint details, date needed. The reply confirmed everything I had requested, except the delivery date, which was about a week beyond the date we needed the stuff. When I replied that the turnaround time listed on their website for the item in question was just a few days, the reply was as follows: “Not with the type of imprint you want.” And then … a sad face emoji.

I was taken aback. I mean, I had not met, spoken, or ever worked with this rep, and having a sad face as part of the reply felt very casual and superficial to me. And, truth be told, I don’t think that the rep was all that sad.