Salespeople say some pretty nasty things sometimes, like, "How do you know a prospect is lying?"..."Their lips are moving." How about the old adage, "Buyers are liars."? Unfortunately, when a sales call doesn't go right, it's seldom the prospect's fault.

I recently eavesdropped on a conversation between two salespeople. One of them said, "I'm losing patience with prospects who cancel at the last minute without an apology or explanation." The salesperson pointed out that the prospect said that they were really interested, asked for the appointment, but cancelled at the last minute to handle a customer's issue. I didn't get involved in the conversation, but I do have a thought.

Did the prospect have a compelling reason to keep the appointment? Not did you promise to show all the bells and whistles of your offering, but what problem did they have that they wanted your help with? Not how do you compare to your competitors, but what is broken that your prospect hopes you can fix?

Imagine this. Your spouse is going on a business trip and will be back a week from Friday. You ask, "How about if I let grandma take the kids, have a nice bottle of wine, a romantic candlelight dinner and we'll see where it ends up?" Has your spouse uncovered your compelling reason to keep the appointment? Is there anything that's gonna keep you from keeping that appointment?

That's what I'm talking about! Compelling reasons to show up and hope!