Our book “Profitable Sales, A Contractor’s Guide” is the result of many, many years spent selling a variety of services and products to both residential and commercial building owners. In that book I outline the basics of sales. Those basics are not only common sense, they are the things that I and a lot of other good sales people paid a lot of money and spent a lot of time to learn.
Yet one of those basic principles, showing up for appointments, on time, continues to be ignored. Wayne Gretzky, the hockey player also known as “The Great One” said, “You miss every shot you don’t take.” If you don’t show up for the appointment, how can you possibly sell the job?
And it’s not okay to show up within 30 minutes of the scheduled time. If you set an appointment for 9 am and arrive at 9:01 am, you are late in my book. When you said you would be there at 9 am, that was the first promise you made to your potential client. When you show up late, why should they believe or trust anything else you say?
Being late for an appointment is nothing more than a bad habit. If you think about it, being on time takes less time than being late. And don’t forget that by being on time, you are showing how much better you are than the other contractors they called who either show up late or not at all.
Put the excuses about why you are late in your pocket. Leave earlier and respect your potential client’s time by being on time. That is the first step to becoming a great salesperson.
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This is very true. Some people shoot themselves down before they even try because of their unprofessional manner. It’s really sad, because good salesmen do this all the time.