I had a cold canvass telephone call from a great telemarketer the other day who managed to get through to me and convince me that I ought to have a guy named Adam call out and show me the new Digital Widget they were selling. All it needed was just 20 minutes of my time.

I set up the appointment with her for 9-00 a.m. a couple of days later and Adam subsequently called to confirm it.

So far, so good.

The appointed time that morning arrived but Adam didn’t. At 9-14, I got a call from Adam who called me “Mate” to say he was running late (the bleeding obvious) with no reason, explanation or apology given. He added that he’d be there in 5 minutes and added another “Mate.”

I indicated that I had had a narrow time window and that I’d really only allocated 20 minutes so that it was probably not now convenient.

“Alright mate, what about we make another time?” he said.

So unimpressed was I with his attitude that this gave me the chance to give him the good old fob off in the nicest possible way.

“Rather than do that now, let’s wait till I know when I will be free next. So give me your number,” I said “And I’ll call you.”

“Sure mate,” he said and gave me his number.

I didn’t write the number down. I haven’t heard from Adam since nor, I’ll bet, am I likely!

What a waste of that company’s time and their resources and what a shocking waste of prospects! What a waste of my time and of my possible purchasing power. What a waste of a lifetime relationship.

The moral:

Don’t rile the prospect.

The lessons:

• Be on time!
• Call people by their proper name.
• Don’t call them “mate” unless they are.
• Apologise and give reasons.
• Reschedule while the prospect is on the line.
• Don’t be easily fobbed off.
• Don’t leave it to the prospect to call you.
• Follow up until the prospect buys or dies.

In a nutshell:

DWYPTD! (Do what you promise to do.)

The result:

Win respect and more profitable sales.