This past Saturday I was looking forward to one appointment in particular. At 2:00 p.m. someone was going to come for that one car that’s been staring at me for sixty days now. Whatever I do, no lead comes in on it. You know, that opportunity you have to be willing to grab.

When the lead came in digitally, I immediately called, emailed, messaged and, of course, spoke to them! Appointment made for the Saturday. Three days between the first contact and the appointment is tricky. Appointments that take more than three days to happen fail to show up more often than appointments that fall within those three days. To hold the attention, on Friday I made a video via Ventavid, called the customer and confirmed the appointment. The result? He’s coming, fortunately….

Saturday morning

On Saturday morning, a WhatsApp is automatically sent with Walcu containing the confirmation, directions and other relevant information. The clock ticks around to 2:00 p.m. and… nothing. No one to be seen. 2:00 p.m. becomes 3:00 p.m., becomes 4:00 p.m. No customer, no message, no email, nothing at all. And when I call, the phone isn’t answered…

And so on Monday I called. Good news: the customer is still interested and is coming by. Something had come up on Saturday, you see. The hardest part is not letting the customer notice the frustration you feel…. Life sometimes gets in the way of appointments and of letting someone know you’re not coming, so that the other person isn’t left waiting like a fool….

Three appointments

What turns out to be the case? That Saturday the customer had made no fewer than three appointments. And at not a single appointment did he show up, because something else caught his attention. On Tuesday he had only one appointment: with us, that is, because we were the only ones who confirmed the appointment, called and sent a video after he didn’t show up. We stayed professional and we kept following up, because we do, after all, have one chance to do it right. One chance. And yes, we grabbed it. Glad it’s gone. The car, that is!

So, you’re a sales manager, your salespeople have appointments on Saturday, and a number of those appointments don’t show up. What do you do? How do you follow that up? That, too, is a process you have to think about, that you have to check and keep refining. Every single day.

To help you, we’ve developed several online courses for exactly that. You’ll find them here!