Feet-To-The-Fire Commitments
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 1:04PM The more I work with people in various organizations, groups, chambers, etc., the more I find myself rolling my eyes at the commitments people make then break.
In all honesty, this is a failing of mine as well, because the curse of having an inventive mind is I get really excited about new stuff, then struggle to follow through once the newness wears off. The good news on that front is I recognize the failing and am working hard to eliminate it (through systems I create for myself and outsourcing).
But when you participate in or lead groups it can be a royal pain in the ass to deal with others who either don’t recognize their own failings or simply don’t care.
And this can be ESPECIALLY difficult with paying clients, because they feel like the writing of a check allows them to dictate these terms.
The bottom line for me, however, is this. If you pay me to help you achieve a result, then you place yourself in the path of achieving that result, it is my fiduciary duty to move you the hell off that path. Otherwise I don’t deserve the money and shouldn’t keep it.
Take Sell Like Mad Day, for example. There is a bit of homework participants must do BEFORE they arrive for the day’s activity. So naturally, I need to manage expectations and thereby ensure that people who show up have their homework done.
I recently sent the following e-mail to all participants for the Oct. 15 SLMD. I’m hoping sharing it with you will help you manage your clients’ expectations — and their ability to meet the commitments they make.
Everyone,
I recently fielded three questions about SLMD — thought you might like to know this stuff too.
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Q1: “What happens if someone shows up without all their stuff?”
A1: The homework — meaning the list of stuff you must bring — for SLMD is mandatory. (See: http://www.honestselling.com/sell-like-mad-day/ if you’ve forgotten what that is.)
Arrive without it and three things will happen:
* You’ll be escorted to the door.
* You’ll forfeit the fee you paid to be there.
* Once you’re gone, the rest of us will laugh about what a putz you were to make
this commitment and break it.
Anyone who doesn’t like this won’t be successful on SLMD anyway, because this is a day for doing, not for talking about doing, and a day for making and keeping firm commitments, not for playing around at sales.
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Q2: What’s the cancellation or postponement policy?
A2: You may cancel your participation any time up to 7 a.m. on your scheduled SLMD. Just call 314-416-1440 and tell me or leave me a voice mail. Then:
* You request a refund and get it.
* You can postpone to another SLMD.
This should cover stuff like getting sick and emergencies, and will give the homework slackers a way out as well.
Note: If someone repeatedly signs up and cancels, I reserve the right to give them the permanent boot, because SLMD will not work without a crowd of six or seven people, and it’s not fair to regular attendees to let one person abuse the system. So please do not sign up unless your intent is a rock-solid commitment.
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Q3: Your website home page says everything is guaranteed. Is this guaranteed?
A3: Absolutely … it involves a test-drive period just like all our guarantees.
For SLMD, the test-drive period is 8 to 10 a.m. When we break at the 10 o’clock hour, if you feel SLMD is not what you expected, you may request a refund and leave.
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Thanks, and have a nice day.
Gill
—
“Sell with manipulation and the world is your battlefield.
Sell with honesty and the world is your playground.” -Sage of Selling
Read “Honest Selling” free at http://honestselling.com/books/your_name_here/
4866 Theiss Rd., St. Louis, MO 63128
Cell: 314-416-1440
Twitter: http://twitter.com/honestselling
Blog: http://www.sageofselling.com
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Gill,
I really liked the post when you talked about your inventive mind.
It hit home with me when you stated you struggle following through after the newness of something rubs off.
That seems to be my problem.
What do you do to continue following through?
Binh -- Read "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership," by Maxwell. In there he talks about learning what you're great at and leveraging it, learning what you're only okay at and working towards improving it, and learning what you suck at and delegating it.
Basically, never put a lot of effort into improving something you're truly bad at, because the payout on the little bit of improvement is no where near the payout on the improvement of something you're already good at.
I'm creative. So when faced with follow-up challenges, I create or find inventive solutions to either eliminate the need to follow up at all, or to automate as much of the follow-up as possible.
Take connecting people, for example. I love to network and I love to add value to the lives of the people I meet by connecting them to other people I know. I always shoot for win-win connections, which are sometimes hard to find.
So when networking, I use my creative interview skills to learn what I must know to make win-win connections.
Of course, that means follow-up -- making the connections I promised to make.
One thing I changed was this. When I get to any networking event I scan the crowd for people I already know and talk with them first if possible. This moves them top-of-mind. Then, when I meet someone new, I search for possible ways to connect them to the people I know are already in the room. It's a creative challenge I just love. And when I find those connections, I can make the connection on the spot, thus eliminating the need to follow up at all.
But I'm not always successful, so my next step is to make the connections on the spot, either using my laptop or a smart phone to send the email connection instead of promising to send it later.
As for the ones where I make the promise to connect, my last resort is to schedule an actual to-do item on my calendar that will beep at me as a reminder. That ping is enough to get me to do it, but this does require a bit of discipline to make work.
Hope that helps,
Gill