Know-How Exchange : Strategy

You suck it up and reschedule. If you find out what happened during the rescheduling process, great. If not, oh well.

My $0.02.

you werent' stood up-- your meeting was cancelled?? Stood up means you showed up and nobody was there. Two hours prior means you were cancelled. They weren't rude, they called. That is all they owe you.

As Inbox said-- you suck it up and reschedule. It's part of sales. Don't assume the worst and don't take it personally. If it happens again and again, this experience may help.

It took me a couple years to land a large account-- one that turned into the largest account my manufacturer had in all of the US. It was easy to get on this guys calendar. I just called his administrator and asked. But Mr. Big would look at his calendar day before and say "she's got nothing I want' and tell her to cancel. So I'd reschedule, and it would happen again. It was frustrating cause I knew I was a fit-- but I could never get to Mr. Big.

So I started working the people under him and became a resource to them. At a trade show one of the lesser gods came to my booth and said "you have to get to Big". And I told him the history. So the lower guy minutes later brought Mr. Big to my booth and said, "Listen to what she has to say". And bam-- got a deal so big my manager said he had to sit down cause he was going to wet himself.

Every big deal I got was a long process -- it's just a bump in the road. View it that way vs coming to conclusions.

I remember one time I was working with a prospect, and my key contact suddenly stopped returning my calls. I was quite irritated, especially because I felt I had a long-standing relationship with the prospect, and I was counting on that business to meet a monthly quota. I decided I would not say anything about it... and after the order was finally in, later than I would have liked, my new customer said, "I'm sorry I was so hard to reach... my mother had just died."

In times like these, you need all the prospects you can get. I would suggest that you not get emotional about this, even though you may be receiving some heat from others in your organization.

Reading between the lines a bit, if I were in your situation, I would work harder at getting more appointments (you can not be dependent on one single prospect). I would also make sure that I understood all the key players involved in decisions to try or purchase your product (you might read the book, "the new strategic selling").

Thanks for your question, and the very best of luck to you.

Put me down for another "suck it up / reschedule".

If you don't know what's going on in the other person's world, who are you to judge if they are maliciously stuffing you around, or simply dealing with the tough hand they have been dealt?

And maybe there's a lesson in this about staying closer to a prospect if the preparation for a presentation is really requiring such a high level of commitment.

Talk to them more frequently in the lead-up - say a week out, a couple of days out, and the day before.

You can be checking on facts you need for the presentation - but if you find they aren't at their office, or you detect they sound under pressure, you may start to get an inkling something is wrong.

They may even thank you for reminding them about the upcoming meeting and asking you for a reschedule in a more timely manner.

But don't go over their head, unless something so untoward happens that burning that bridge is the only option.

I can remember an example where a buyer was asked to lunch by a systems provider looking to sell a large upgrade. The buyer asked "So where did you have in mind?"

When told the name of an expensive nearby restaurant, the buyer said "Wow, that's going to cost around $500, isn't it? Tell you what, let's meet here and talk, and you can buy me a new TV to the same value."

The systems provider had no hesitation in taking that matter to the company's CEO, and very soon found themselves dealing with a brand new buyer instead.

So now you see there are many ways to handle this. What fits your personality?

For me I would contact the client directly (not thru the scheduler) and say you are sorry the time didn't work out. State that you hope whatever happened at the last minute was not too serious and ask for a new time.

If it was serious, you've added your personal concern. If it wasn't the person may feel like a jerk. If they didn't know about the appointment....then you've accomplished what you wanted, right?

Whatever you do, don't criticize the scheduler. You have NO idea of any family or friendship involved.

Michael