Do What You Said You Would Do

 A good friend of mine was with the same company for 27 years, a rock-solid dependable guy. If he said he was going to do something, you could take it to the bank. If he said he would be someplace at a certain time, you could set your watch by it. Then something happened. He switched careers, then switched back. Then he changed companies three times in three years.

 Along the way with all of those changes, something happened to my rock-solid dependable guy. He began to be late for scheduled meetings and events. He was a no-show at some others, and a last-minute cancellation of others. A couple of times he didn’t even bother to call or email that he would be late or a no-show.

 Clients often ask me if they should confirm appointments with prospects. That’s a very interesting question. It seems a lot of business people are a little like my formerly-dependable friend, and sales professionals often fear the embarrassment of being “stood up”, or the hassle of traveling somewhere – even if it’s just across town – only to find the prospect has been called away or just plain forgot the appointment.

There are two lessons here, both for the sales professional and anyone:

 1)     Set solid up-front contracts for every appointment you make. Up-front contracts at their simplest are verbal agreements on the purpose, duration, agenda, and outcomes of any scheduled event. The key is to gain the prospect’s consent verbally. Follow that up with a solid post-sell, which is merely a confirmation that the up-front contract will stick. If you do that, you shouldn’t have to call or email later to see if the prospect actually intends to show up. If after mastering up-front contracts and the post-sell, you still find that some of your prospects are not holding up their end, you may have a problem with your own “personal presence”. Personal presence is that intangible quality that makes others want to respect you as a person.

 2)     Teach your clients and prospects that you are dependable. Make your word be your bond. Show up exactly on time every time – not a minute early and not a minute late – and you will develop the reputation as someone who can be trusted. That reputation can be tarnished (see my friend, above), so you have to really work hard to develop and protect it. If you say you are going to be somewhere at a certain time, be there at exactly that time. If you say you are going to do such-and-such, do it sooner rather than later, and do it well.

 All things being equal, people prefer to buy from people they can trust. All things NOT being equal, people STILL prefer to buy from people they can trust. Teaching your clients and prospects that you can be trusted will result in many of them wanting to show you that they can be trusted to keep their word as well. That’s the way the best business is done, between people who trust each other and make it a habit to respect each other’s time and efforts.

Should you confirm your appointments? Only if you have a problem with prospects who are backing out on you, and/or constantly being late. Once you have set the expectation that you will do what you said you will do, confirming appointments will be unnecessary.

 Do you do what you say you will do? Do you show up when you say you will show up? Really?Brandy Swanson is Executive Vice President of Simon, Inc., an authorized licensee of the Sandler Sales Institute. She can be reached at www.SimonSaysSell.net