Want to save some time?

Posted: June 19, 2017 | Categories: Sales

See if this situation doesn’t sound familiar:  You have all your appointments scheduled for the week.  A day before your Wednesday noon appointment, your prospect calls and says they need to re-schedule.  They give an excuse, but it is a weak one.  One more thing…this is the third time they have called to re-schedule.

I am a big follower of correlations.  They serve me well.  By correlation I mean, “Whenever this situation happens, how often does it result in the same specific outcome?”  For the situation described above, I have discovered this:  When a prospect re-schedules three times, I cannot recall a single time when they have become my customer for any length of time.  As you can imagine, I almost don’t want a “chronic re-scheduler” as a client.  Like all professionals, I live off of billable hours.  I respect other’s time, and I make sure they respect mine.  In a coaching relationship, this is vital.  I also think it is important for any trade.

If we employ the “three strikes you’re out” policy, what do we say after the 3rd strike?  How can we cut bait graciously?  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal this week, here is some wording that works well:

“Look, it sounds like you’re really busy.  I’m still very interested in meeting with you.  Let me know when you have time.”

Of course, there are exceptions to almost any rule.  You may be thinking, “What if someone has a legitimate reason for re-scheduling?”  They usually sound very disappointed that they cannot make the meeting.  This just happened to me today.  I re-scheduled an appointment I was very much looking forward to.  The reason?  I just found out on Friday that I need to go in for heart surgery this Wednesday.  The other party was very understanding, and I know we will meet.  The message is this:  Respect your time.  If you don’t, you will not manage your time as well.

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