We live in a time where it is becoming increasingly difficult to pin people down to an appointment. The lack of commitment of the general population can be frustrating to salespeople, those whose livelihoods center around meetings, and anyone in business.
Why is it so hard to get someone to commit? Why have people – all of a sudden – stopped honoring their word?
I believe it is partly because of communication / technology. With e-mail, cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, other social media apps, texting, etc. people don’t want to commit because MAYBE, just MAYBE something better may come along and BINGO – your appointment just got bumped.
Rather than spend time in this week’s blog speculating why things are the way they are – I’d much rather focus on overcoming this challenge. In doing so, we can avoid frustration, anger, disappointment and discouragement. All of which, by the way, can zap the positive energy from the person who was “stood up”.
Allow me to share some of the things I do when scheduling appointments:
1…Double Book. Yes, you read that correctly. There are times, I double book an appointment time. What I do is schedule a meeting at (say) restaurant A for 1pm. I also schedule another appointment at restaurant A for 1pm with another person. What is so amazing about doing this is that I rarely have had 2 people meet me at the same time at restaurant A. That’s right, usually one or the other cancels – or simply does not show up.
2…Have a plan B. If I do not have a double appointment, I always have things I can accomplish in that time frame – so that my time is not wasted.
Remember, “You can always make more money but you can never make more time.” We all only have 24 hours in a day.
3…Beware of what I call the 40% people. The 40% people are those folks who I know that 60% of the time they will cancel a meeting, forget about the meeting or bump you for a better option. The honor their commitment only 40% of the time.
Remember, “People who don’t respect your time – will never respect you.”
The 40% people are not bad people. Those in this group often are poor time managers, disorganized, very flippant in the way they lead their lives or schedule meetings based on emotion.
I want to emphasize here that these are NOT bad people. They book appointments with good intentions. I just cannot afford to waste my time putting them in my calendar and having them “no show me”.
4…Burn me once – but never again. The people who fall in to this category have “no showed” or cancelled on me once. If this happens a 2nd time, then that’s MY fault. So, rather than invest my time traveling – I will have them meet me somewhere I am already going to be. Good example: let’s say I will be at the mall picking up a few items. I will schedule them to meet me at the food court or at a restaurant in the mall. By scheduling the meeting where I am already at – I am not wasting gasoline or time traveling to meet with them.
5…The “Can you call and remind me people.” Seriously? If Bill Gates or some celebrity were to meet you, would you tell them to have their people call you and remind you of the meeting. Right from the get go, these people are telling you to your face that YOU are not a priority in their calendar. The solution? I politely say – it sounds to me like you are extremely busy at this time and this would not be a good time for us to get together. Call me when your time frees up.
This brings up a point that is an exception here. If I am traveling any distance to meet with the person, I will call a day (or maybe even several hours) in advance to confirm our meeting. If they use this as an opportunity to cancel, then I schedule the next appointment close to my office and let them do the driving.
A friend shared this thought with me….. He uses the following line, “You don’t strike me as the type of person who goes back on their word and cancels meetings at the last minute are you?”
TIP – It is always a good idea to ask, “You have that written down, right? We are meeting at Restaurant A on 4th Street – Thursday at 2pm.” The close your conversation with, “I will see you Thursday at 2pm at Restaurant A.”
Now that we have covered all this – I must add that you have to allow a certain amount of latitude for life to happen. People do – at times – cancel meetings for legitimate reasons. I am sure you can tell the sincere ones from the ones who have an Excuse Sheet on a wall by their desk and they toss a dart to see which one they will use on you.
Have a great week.
Ron
BTW – feel free to share your experiences, thoughts, advice, and comments in the “Comments” section of my blog.
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